ORLANDO, Fla. — There continue to be disparities in COVID-19 vaccine distribution to minority communities, and now, the state and federal governments are working to close the gap.
Florida officials are setting up vaccination sites at places of worship in Black and Hispanic communities to get the shots to them.
And now, the White House is shipping vials directly to community health centers.
It was initially thought that Black and Hispanic people were receiving vaccines at much lower rates due to hesitancy from those communities.
Focusing our vaccination strategy on increasing supply, the number of places to be vaccinated, and the number of vaccinators has led to real progress in administering the vaccine. This progress report has our 7-day average daily doses up from where it was two weeks ago. pic.twitter.com/RtdANUl4p8
— White House COVID-19 Response Team (@WHCOVIDResponse) February 11, 2021
Janelle Dunn, CEO of True Health, says the problem isn’t hesitancy, but lack of access.
“It’s not that we don’t want it now, it’s we can’t get it,” Dunn says. “It seems it’s turned from a hesitancy conversation to an access conversation. I completely agree.”
To address the problem on the federal level, President Joe Biden’s administration is now sending vaccine supplies directly to federally qualified community health centers.
True Health is one of those health centers. There are more than 600 of them across the state.
These centers provide services in underserved communities, and 60% of their patients are minorities.
READ: Hundreds of UCF nursing students help administer COVID-19 vaccines
Andy Behrman, President and CEO of the Florida Association of Health Centers, says the initiative should help reduce that imbalance.
“Everybody needs a vaccine,” Behrman says. “It’s a crazy thing to even have to think about that.”
Behrman says he’s been pushing for it from the beginning, asking the White House for direct allotments since January.
“The answer back from the White House was, ‘absolutely.’ It wasn’t even a question,” Behrman recalls.
The President set an ambitious goal of administering 100 million shots in our first 100 days. To get there, we’ve got to average about a million shots per day. Just one week in, our trajectory is good and we are well on our way to hitting that goal. pic.twitter.com/wnifMdoU8e
— White House COVID-19 Response Team (@WHCOVIDResponse) January 27, 2021
They’re now sending the first set of shipments to 250 community health centers across the country; three are in Florida.
In the coming weeks, more shipments will go out to 12 other centers in Florida, including one in Kissimmee.
True Health isn’t on the list, but Janell Dunn says she and her team are standing by.
“We have freezers that are ready. We have a load of patients. We’re ready.”
Cox Media Group
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