Getting the vaccine isn’t simple when you live in Jane and Finch
My immigrant parents, both essential workers, have yet to get their COVID-19 vaccine or even book an appointment for that matter. In fact, they’re pretty much unable to. What neighbourhood do we live in? Jane and Finch.
Jane and Finch was a place of dreams and hope for my parents when they arrived here from Vietnam, and it’s similar for other immigrants and families here. But as the COVID-19 pandemic rages on, it’s hard to see any glimmer of hope that my parents once had when they first arrived here decades ago. From rising cases and deaths to the lowest vaccination rates — even as vaccines have supposedly been offered to those 18 and older — the answers to protecting our area gets more difficult.
Getting the vaccine in Ontario isn’t as simple as logging onto your computer, booking your appointment and then going to get your shot. Not when you live in Jane and Finch.
Most people here are immigrants, often getting by with minimal English. When my grandma booked her vaccination appointment, she had to do it with the help of my cousin, an English speaker.
If she were left to do it herself or even had the aid of my parents, it would have been nearly impossible. I asked my dad if he’d be able to book an appointment without my help, and a straightforward “absolutely not,” in Cantonese was more than enough to answer my question.
Here’s the thing. You can’t just put a website online for people to sign up and think that it will fix your vaccination rate issues. Some people don’t even have connection to Wi-Fi. How are the people in charge forgetting about these issues when you look at a neighbourhood that has constantly been labelled with statistics that point to the word “poverty?”
Say you do get past that hurdle and you book an appointment — great! Now you need to get there. That’s where the second problem comes in. With a limited number of clinics, hospitals, and pharmacies in the area, it’s unfeasible to get to places without taking public transit.
Buses are often full of people who need to get to work as essential
workers and cannot stay home. Booking an appointment was one issue, but now they’re essentially telling these people — some of whom are elderly — to heighten their chances of getting COVID giving one solution: hopping on a packed bus to the nearest vaccination site. This issue of public transit in our neighbourhood isn’t a recent problem either. It’s long been a lack of proper
resources invested into the public transit system that has been an issue for decades. We’re just now seeing more fatal consequences.
Most people here are also essential workers and cannot afford a day off of work. For many, days off are unpaid days, and for most of us — my family included — it is not a luxury that we can afford. My father works at a factory and my mother works at a food processing plant. They have yet to get their vaccines despite living with five others in our household, myself, my younger sibling, my cousins and my grandma. Why? Taking a day off of work just to get a vaccine means money lost to provide for a household of seven. To us, time is literally money.
Most families here in Jane and Finch are in a similar situation: Immigrants who are working hard to provide for their family and themselves, not to mention pay bills too. I’m currently in university and seeing my parents work so hard just for my education is almost heartbreaking, especially when they can’t even prioritize their health first.
After all, living the “Canadian dream” of success can only be done with wealth. Money comes and goes; your health is invaluable — it should be so simple but it’s not something that people living in Jane and Finch have the luxury of understanding because money is our only way to survive.
Some may argue “well X neighbourhood has more elderly people who are retired so that’s why high-income neighbourhoods are getting vaccinated quicker,” but we also have to look at the funding that goes to those neighbourhoods. For every one drugstore there is in Jane and Finch, I can assure you there’s probably five in a place like Rosedale. It’s not just a matter of demographic in this pandemic — even prior to it. There has been a shocking lack of funding and resources invested into Jane and Finch. Once again, we’re seeing the horror now.
Jane and Finch is a place with a reputation, issues, and a bright and diverse community. For all the negativity that surrounds it, this neighbourhood is home to people, myself included. People have chosen to leave their comfortable and familiar life back at home in another country just to come here and call Jane and Finch their new one. But our neighbourhood continues struggling with low vaccination rates and rising cases. Those hopes my parents had for a better life here seem to be nothing more than a longforgotten dream now.