Vaccine inequity, racial contrasts a concern
Vaccine inequity, COVID-19 racial disparities and community ambassadors were the topic of discussion during Boulder County Public Health’s weekly vir tual community meeting Wednesday. The county also reported 64 new COVID-19 cases but no new deaths or hospitalizations.
During the meeting, BCPH Emergency Management Planner Chris Campbell revealed the community ambassadors that will help address vaccine inequity, COVID-19 cases among minority communities and getting these communities educated about the virus and vaccinations.
Campbell said these community ambassadors will be trained in vaccine safety and ef fectiveness. He also said they will suppor t the minority community by reaching out to connect these residents to mobile and vaccine clinics, but the new par tnerships may evolve as new needs arise.
The six COVID-19 virus and vaccination community ambassadors are:
•El Comité, of Longmont, which ser ves the Hispanic and Latinx communities and focuses on advocacy and equity ef for ts,
•Second Baptist Church, Boulder, a faith-based organization ser ving communities of color,
•El Paso, Lafayette, a medical
clinic ser ves Hispanic and Latinx patients,
•Out Boulder County, Boulder, which ser ves the LGBTQ+ community and is focused on advocacy and equity efforts,
•Intercambio, Longmont, which ser ves Boulder County’s minority and immigrant families, and
•El Centro Amistad, Boulder, which ser ves Hispanic and Latinx communities and immigrant families with support services.
“This is a long-term approach that we will discuss many times — the education component is critical right now in vaccine equity,” Campbell said. He also said that these strategies and ambassador par tnerships rely on the strong trust these organizations have in their respective communities.
“Vaccine mistrust is rooted in political influence, rushed (development), side effects and long-term effects,” Campbell said. He said all of those issues are are key concerns that must be addressed in a language these various communities understand best.
The county will host town-hall style community meetings to address equity topics, concerns and issues and to ask for feedback from the wider community in the near future. They will also create spaces in which English and Spanish speakers and members of the HIV+ community can address concerns.
In Wednesday’s vir tual community COVID-19 meeting, BCPH Executive Director Jeff Zayach told attendees that the county data is trending down into the blue zones on the state dial. He also added new cases, positivity rates and hospitalizations remain stable in Boulder County.
Zayach said he expects county COVID-19 numbers to be below last summer’s lows by late March and taper down to nearly no new virus cases by late May. His projections, which come from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation Colorado, also indicated that if current vaccination efforts in the county continue or increase, an estimated 600 residents’ lives could be saved.
However, these projections also indicate that if the Food & Drug Administration approves the pending emergency use authorization application of Johnson & Johnson’s oneshot COVID-19 vaccination within the month, it is possible to save the lives of an additional 400-600 residents. Johnson & Johnson submitted its coronavirus application on Feb. 4, and the FDA is expected to rule on its decision by Saturday.
On Wednesday, Zayach also said estimated transmission control is 83% in the county. The estimated transmissions control data is composed of the previous two weeks’ data based on hospitalizations since the beginning of the pandemic. The current data set about control is from county data from Jan. 23 through Feb. 2.
The county also gave more information about what the new mobile COVID-19 vaccine clinics will provide. In the meeting Wednesday, Campbell said mobile clinics will be provided less than 250 coronavirus inoculations a week and the priority population ser ved by them will be those 65 and older, with limited mobility, such as those in independent living accommodations and mountain communities. Community clinics will be given 250 or more weekly dosages and will ser ve racial, ethnic and minority communities.
Traditional clinics will continue to ser ve all eligible residents under the state’s current Phase 1.A through 1.B.2, pending additional guidance from Gov. Jared Polis. The governor is expected to give updates about Phase 1B.3 on Thursday.
The 64 new cases bring the county’s total cases to 18,723. The number of deaths remains unchanged at 246 and the number of hospitalizations remains unchanged at 536. There are 28 residents currently hospitalized with coronavirus. Six residents were discharged Tuesday after receiving COVID-19 treatment.
The University of Colorado Boulder updated its dashboard Wednesday. On Tuesday, there were three positive test results from 147 diagnostic tests and 1,859 monitoring tests. The dashboard showed there are 12 isolation spaces in use, which is 2% of the university’s isolation spaces. Since the start of spring testing Jan. 4, there have been 324 positives from 5,081 diagnostic tests and 31,312 monitoring tests.
Boulder Valley School District updated its dashboard Wednesday. The district reported 17 active cases with 240 students and 38 staf f members in quarantine.
The St. Vrain Valley School District reported on its dashboard Wednesday 28 active cases, split between 20 students and eight staf f. The district has seen a cumulative 604 student cases and 226 staf f cases, totaling 830.
Statewide, Colorado Depar tment of Public Health and Environment reported there are 423,558 cases. There have been 5,917 deaths among cases, and of those, 5,837 deaths because of COVID-19 have been recorded. A total of 23,349 people have been hospitalized. Of Colorado’s more than 5.7 million people, 2,550,473 people have been tested.