UM vaccine bus is helping protect underserved kids from COVID-19
A Haitian woman in a blue head wrap and floral print dress approached Maria Ferraris seeking a COVID-19 vaccine. But Ferraris couldn’t understand her. Shrugging, she said: “No English? OK, that’s fine,” and found someone nearby to translate to Haitian Creole.
The woman then boarded a white bus parked behind the Center for Haitian Studies and got vaccinated. Ferraris says this is common and helps people who can’t write or read English register for a vaccine regardless of insurance or immigration status.
“It’s hard sometimes. The kids are the ones translating for us,” she said.
As the project manager at the University of Miami’s Pediatric Mobile Clinic, Ferraris and her medical colleagues travel throughout Miami-Dade County — Homestead, Doral and Little Haiti — to help undeserved communities. They want to lift barriers for people who have trouble getting vaccinated due to language, immigration status, disability and lack of access to healthcare.
On Tuesday, the vaccine bus made a stop in Little Haiti to help a population that doesn’t get vaccinated at the same rate as others. According to an el Nuevo Herald report with data from Miami-Dade County and the U.S. Census, Central American and Haitian immigrants in some areas of the county have vaccination rates of 41% and 32.5%. That compares with more than a 55% vaccination rate countywide.
In response to the disparities,
the University of Miami Health System rolled out its UHealth pediatric mobile unit to offer vaccines. The program has been vaccinating people 18 and older for about two months but just started giving shots to kids 12 and older, said Dr. Lisa Gwynn, a pediatrician and director of the UHealth pediatric mobile clinic.
With about half a million dollars in funding from the Florida Department of Health, the program began its tour on Friday in Homestead. On Monday, the bus visited the Visitation Catholic Church in Miami and will continue to stop at other locations for the rest of the week, Gwynn said.
On Tuesday, the program’s white bus stopped at the Center of Haitian Studies, where it visits the same day every week. The UM unit vaccinated about 40 people from 9 a.m. to noon. But only three of those were 16 or under.
Delores Fye, a nurse, said she often helps children through their worries.
“Mostly they’re afraid to ask if it’s gonna hurt. I just
try and calm them and give them a few tips,” Fye said.
Working with the UM program, she said families tell her how grateful and excited they are to get the vaccine.
Bibi Ramkhelawan, a 49-year-old mother from Pembroke Pines, brought her 12-year-old daughter to get vaccinated. In April, the mother and her two eldest children, 23 and 19, received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in the same location. Her husband got the Pfizer vaccine earlier elsewhere.
Following their 9:45 a.m. appointment, mom and daughter drove to Chili’s to celebrate with salad, steak and fries with bacon bits, linguine with shrimp and a molten chocolate cake before Jenny returned to school online and changed from a Tshirt and tights to a school uniform.
Seated on red and blue chairs after getting his first dose, 20-year-old Jaedan Issa said his father had a hard time finding vaccination sites that weren’t booked. The Atlantis Academy Miami
student said while he was initially nervous about pain from the shot, he was relieved to get a dose.
“It’s almost like a party bus,” he said.
HOW TO GET A VACCINE
The UM mobile program will continue through Saturday and plans to continue its tour through the summer. About 12 children are already registered for Friday.
Appointments: Call 305-243-6407. Walk-ins are also accepted.
Hours: Vaccine distribution is this Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon. The bus is at the Center for Haitian Studies every Tuesday.
Locations:
Wednesday at Air
●
Base K-8 Center for International Education, 12829 SW 272nd St., Homestead
Friday at Our Lady of
●
Guadalupe Catholic Church, 11691 NW 25th St., Doral
Saturday at Little Havana
● Health Fair,, 434 SW Third Ave., Miami