HOUSTON – As the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out continues, recent numbers by the CDC gives a better picture of who’s getting vaccinated.
On one of the lower ends, Hispanics at 11.5%, according to data compiled between Dec. 14 and Jan. 14.
“For us to solve this, we’re going to have to act together and we’re all going to have to vaccinate together,” said Dr. Bob Sanborn, the President & CEO of Children At Risk, a research and advocacy group.
Sanborn said there are many factors that likely play into those lower numbers among the Hispanic community.
”Part of this is an access to information to understand that listen vaccines are free for everyone. But there is still the unknown out there and that contributes and overall because of the general mistrust,” he said.
“I think there are a lot of barriers that we need to bridge for our communities,” said Dr. Andrea Caracostis, the CEO of Hope Clinic.
Hope Clinic is a community health center serving the uninsured, under-insured, low-income and those with limited English.
So far, Caracostis said they’ve already vaccinated about 800 people at their clinics with the numbers looking a little more proportionate because of who they serve.
”People who have engaged with us were already ripe and looking for the immunizations. We may be had about 30% to 35% Hispanics which kind of reflects the population we serve,” Caracostis said.
As far as turning the numbers around across the board though, many believe it’ll be a community effort and getting everyone on board.
“We do need to do a lot of outreach and education to our communities about the benefits of the vaccine,” Caracostis said.
”We’re going to have to be able to craft unique messages for the Latino community so that people understand that this is safe,” Sanborn said.