Dr. Jerry Abraham is committed to ensuring that California’s most vulnerable communities have access to the Covid-19 vaccine.
Abraham has been calling government officials in recent months to demand vaccine doses for black and brown people in hard-hit South Los Angeles, develop vaccination sites that welcome walk-in patients, host massive vaccination events with entertainers, and deploy mobile vaccination fleets in neighborhoods where residents have no transport.
Abraham, director of vaccines at the Kedren Community Health Center, said he now vaccinates 5,000 people a day, filling a void in a community that might otherwise be neglected.
“We’ve broken every barrier between people and their vaccines,” Abraham told CNN. “No appointment, that’s okay. No internet or email, phone or transportation, can’t walk, talk or see, can’t speak English, no papers, homeless – none of those were barriers.”
California remains one of the states with the greatest disparities in vaccinating its Latino population, despite efforts like Abraham’s and a statewide mandate allocating 40% of vaccine doses to disadvantaged communities.
According to state data, 20% of vaccine doses have been given to Latinos, who make up 39% of the population and 56% of cases.
And 3% of the vaccines have been given to black people in California, who make up 6% of the population and 4% of the cases. White people, meanwhile, have received 29% of the vaccines and make up 20% of the cases and 37% of the population.
Health advocates say vaccine misinformation and lack of access are the main reasons for California’s racial inequality.
Now they are urging the state and its partners to boost vaccination efforts in communities of color to prevent inequality from widening when all California adults are eligible for admission on April 15. Some fear that residents with reliable internet, transportation, and the ability to take them off work will continue to outpace the poor black and Latino communities worst affected by Covid-19.
California officials were fired earlier this year when a vaccine program intended for seniors living in black and Latino communities was abused by outsiders who were given the special group codes needed to schedule appointments.
Gavin Newsom replied that the group codes were being abused and that the program would switch to individual codes. About a week later, the Newsom government announced it was setting aside 40% of vaccine doses for hard-hit communities.
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