Slow, but steady, vaccine drives make appeals to minorities
Houston officials hope to boost stagnant numbers among Black, Latino residents
Cars trickled into a health center parking lot Saturday morning for one of a series of vaccination drives held in Houston to encourage Black and brown residents to get inoculated against COVID-19.
By the afternoon, about 25 people received vaccinations at the Spring Branch Community Health Center in west Houston, according to FIEL Executive Director Cesar Espinosa, marking slow but steady progress by community leaders to address racial disparities in vaccination rates.
“Even if only one person comes out, we know that we did our job by providing these opportunities for folks to come out,” Espinosa said.
Local officials, health care workers and community organizers held several events Saturday to encourage minority residents in Houston to get inoculated, despite a drop in the rate of vaccinations, which have largely plateaued since May, public health data shows.
Though Latinos make up about 43 percent of the population in Harris County, they have received 35 percent of the vaccinations, data shows. Black residents have gotten about 11 percent,
despite being 18 percent of the population.
Whites and those who did not identify their race got the lion’s share of vaccines when they were first made available in December, but in June made up just over 21 percent of people still getting shots. By the end of June, Blacks and Latinos made up 12 percent and 45 percent, respectively, of those getting vaccinated.
Espinosa said the lag in vaccinations can be chalked up to a
lack of information and hesitancy due to misinformation. Spring Branch Community Health Center has tried to combat that fear by hosting vaccine drives and information sessions, such as the one in their parking lot Saturday and at apartment complexes in the area, according to Sarah Prompuntagorn, community engagement manager at the health center.
One of the first people to receive their vaccine Saturday at Spring Branch was Pablo Melgar, 41, a retired professional soccer player and president of Guatemala’s “minifootball” — or smallteam soccer — association. He was in town for a series of exhibition games and decided to get a shot here before returning Sunday to Guatemala, where vaccines remain sparse.
“It’s sad, we have a saying in Guatemala that goes ‘God gives bread to those without teeth.’ Here, there’s bread but people don’t want to eat. In Guatemala, we’re hungry but there’s no bread,” Melgar said in Spanish, when asked about the wealth of vaccines available in the United States.
William Mendez, 42, said he learned about the event in Spring Branch through his sister, who
drove him to get his shot. He had no qualms about getting a vaccine, he said, but wasn’t able to find the time between his job in construction and other obligations.
“I feel calmer now that I can avoid COVID-19 and we can start venturing out again without worrying about getting sick or having to go to the hospital,” Mendez
said in Spanish.
There were no takers, however, for at least an hour Saturday morning at Goode Looks Barbershop in Third Ward, where Mayor Sylvester Turner and staff with U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee’s office appeared for a vaccine event. By the end of the day, two people who walked in agreed to get a dose, according to shop
owner Lewis Goode.
Many in the shop said they had already been vaccinated, but one man, 46-year-old Gabriel Ismael, said he wanted to research his options first.
“COVID’s not going anywhere and the vaccine is not going anywhere, both of them are here to stay, so for me it’s not a matter of if I’m getting it but which one I’m comfortable getting,” Ismael said.
Turner acknowledged that he is “concerned” that the rate at which people are getting vaccinated has dropped, but said it’s important to continue making vaccines easily accessible.
“You got to go to where the people are. What I also know is that if you make it available and accessible, if you go to where the traffic is and offer it, people will take advantage of it, and that’s why we’re in the barbershop,” Turner said, as Goode trimmed his hair.
It was the second week that Goode Looks Barber Shop hosted a vaccine drive as part of President Joe Biden’s Shots at the Shop initiative, which gives barber shops and beauty salons $1,000 stipends to participate in such events. Last week, Goode said about 10 people received a vaccine at his shop.
“Barbers play an important part in this, we’re almost like pastors or counselors, so I think this is the ideal spot, and I think its very unique that President Biden allowed the barber shops to be a part of it, it’s a great look,” Goode said.
Turner pointed to the spread of the delta variant as a reason for people to continue getting vaccinated against COVID-19, saying the “virus hasn’t gone anywhere.”