Gaps continue in vaccine access for Massachusetts communities of color

The Reggie Lewis Center is setting aside some of its already limited vaccine appointments for those in communities hardest hit by the coronavirus, and pharmacies getting a boost in shots from the feds are opening new sites in heavily minority areas.

But local officials and advocates say that’s still not enough to reach the state’s most vulnerable populations — and they’re calling for a more “ground-up” approach to getting shots into the arms of seniors and out into communities of color.

“Having a vaccination site in neighborhoods of color does not equal equity in access to the vaccine,” Boston mayoral candidate and City Councilor Andrea Campbell said in a statement. “It must be paired with proactive, multilingual community engagement, in partnership with organizations and health providers our residents know and trust, to deliver information about the vaccine.”

Gov. Charlie Baker said the state is working to build up that trust by partnering with 50 community health centers as he defended his administration’s vaccine rollout in a press conference on Wednesday.

“For many people of color, it is important that the provider be somebody they consider to be a trusted part of their community,” he said. That’s why community health centers have “been a big part of how we thought about this from the beginning.”

A day after U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley called the unequal distribution of vaccines in communities of color a “vaccine redlining,” Baker outlined several efforts the state is taking to expand access, including increasing the number of pharmacy vaccination sites in largely minority neighborhoods such as Mattapan, Roxbury and Dorchester.

The Reggie Lewis Center in Roxbury is also setting aside about 15% of its appointments for communities most impacted by the pandemic, and state and city officials are working with community-based groups to ensure greater access.

“The most important thing we need to do is recognize that trusted community people, organizations, institutions is a big part of how you make this happen,” Baker said, adding that the inclusion of community health centers and addition of more pharmacies in hard-hit areas “is a big part of how we solve the issue and the problem associated with the fact that we don’t have as many people of color getting vaccinated as we would like.”

But Boston mayoral candidate and City Councilor Michelle Wu said “just as important to building trust is ensuring we are removing barriers to direct access.”

“If we are sharing information and doing our best to communicate that this vaccine is safe and yet our grandparents and seniors are still unable to actually get to a location or be able to sign up, we’re still far behind in ending this pandemic,” she said.

Tens of thousands more appointments will become available at mass vaccination sites each Thursday, and hundreds if not thousands of slots open up at pharmacies and other local vaccination sites each day.

State Sen. Eric Lesser, D-Longmeadow, said that’s great for those who “can sit on their couch with their laptop open, but people working night shifts or who don’t have access to the internet are completely shut out.”

Dr. Moses Dixon, executive director of the Central Massachusetts Agency on Aging, also stressed the need for more local representatives to have a “seat at the table.”

“Having a seat at the table is important because it’s being able to get information out there to folks and other leaders in the community,” Dixon said in a virtual event with state Sen. Jamie Eldridge, D-Acton, on Wednesday. “It really has to be a ground-up approach. It’s going to be a lot of work, but we have got to do it, because if we don’t, this thing will continue to spiral out of control.”

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3jhwMLu