Officials call out vaccine inequities
Mayor Sylvester Turner and other elected officials called for a more fair and equitable system for distributing COVID-19 vaccines.
At a news conference Saturday at the Settegast Community Health clinic, Turner criticized the vaccine distribution system, calling it skewed against minorities and blaming it for vaccine hesitancy.
The discrepancy is even more concerning, Turner said, given that minority communities have been hit hardest by the virus. “The impact of this virus has been disproportionate on people of color,” he said. “Yet when the vaccine is on the scene, it seems as though it is converse of that.”
Federally qualified health centers like Harris Health System primarily serve minority communities. According to Dr. Esmaeil Porsa, Harris Health chief executive officer and president, more than 80 percent of the vaccines distributed at Harris Health locations have gone to minorities.
“The people who are most significantly and negatively impacted by COVID-19 are our racial minorities, our indigent, the uninsured and underinsured, and those are exactly the people that Harris Health System serves,” said Porsa.
But while the Harris Health System, the largest safety net hospital in Texas, has the capacity to vaccinate up to 15,000 people per week, Porsa said, it is only slated to receive 4,000 doses.
“You have to follow the problem,” added Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis. “If you have a disproportionate impact, we ought to put a disproportionate share of the resources there.”
Compounding the problem, noted state Rep. Gene Wu, DHouston, is the fact that many minorities are essential workers who risk higher exposure to the virus.
“They don’t have the option of staying home, and they’re also the community that’s being hit the hardest by the pandemic,” Wu said.
The mass-distribution sites are helpful for distributing greater doses of the vaccine, but they hinder minority access to the vaccines, Turner contended. “Mass distribution sites are good for numbers, but when it comes
down to the people who are disproportionately impacted, they’re not good for equity,” he said.
Dr. Jennifer Small of Settegast Community Health said that community clinics like Harris Health are vital to underserved communities. Settegast clinic is located directly in the community, so it’s easily accessible to patients. It’s
also directly off a bus line for patients without cars, she noted.
The Minute Maid Park megadistribution site, by comparison, is very difficult to access without a vehicle.
Turner called upon larger hospitals to share their vaccine doses with minority communities and public health centers. “If you look at the Harris Health System —
their hospitals LBJ and Ben Taub — when you look at the distribution in terms of the hospitals that are getting the vaccines, the Harris Health hospitals are getting a smaller percentage than the other hospitals.”
The disparity leads directly to vaccine hesitancy, Turner said.
“When people see their neighbors and family members are getting the vaccine, let me tell you, they’re not going to want to be left out,” he said. “But as long as the disparity is so great, then people are starting to wonder, ‘Well, maybe Hispanics are not getting it because they don’t want to get it.’”
The longer minorities have to wait to get vaccinated, said Harris County Commissioner Adrian Garcia, the more distrust of the vaccine will spread through minority communities.
“People will wonder about the effects of the vaccine, the validity of the vaccine, the efficacy of the vaccine, and it will allow time for chaotic messaging to continue to confuse people that this is not something that they need to do,” Garcia said.
Turner appealed to the state to distribute the vaccines directly to the city and county so they can be given to federally qualified health centers, thereby closing some of the gaps in health care access.
NAACP Houston president Bishop James Dixon issued harsh words to state officials over vaccine distribution. “It is extremely important that our governor and those at the state level understand every time a person dies in our community, because they didn’t… have access to vaccinations, that blood is on your hands.”
By allowing the city and county to allocate the vaccine distribution, local officials can make informed decisions about where the vaccines are needed most, Turner said.
“Let’s cut the state out of the equation,” Garcia agreed. “Let’s get it to the local communities where we all here know how to reach our constituents.”
Also Saturday, Houston Rally for Health, Liberty and Choice event took place at the Galleria that called into question the safety and efficacy of vaccines. The event drew four attendees.