White people went to hard-hit Latino neighbourhood in NYC and took their COVID-19 vaccine appts

[iluvtennis]

https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/white-people-went-to-hard-hit-latino-neighbourhood-in-nyc-and-took-their-covid-19-vaccine-appointments-1.5289188

A COVID-19 vaccination site in a Latino neighbourhood in New York City hard hit by the pandemic saw an overwhelming number of white people from outside the community show up to get the shot this month, city leaders say, laying bare a national disparity that shows people of colour are being vaccinated at dramatically lower rates.

The site at the Armory Track & Field Center in Washington Heights was launched Jan. 14 by New York-Presbyterian Hospital and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Vaccine appointments were initially offered to people age 65 and older who live in New York state.

Lawmakers who represent Washington Heights and a doctor who staffed the site last week said the first wave of vaccinations went to many White New Yorkers over 65 who travelled to the Armory from other parts of the city and state.

Mayor Bill de Blasio on Friday called it "outrageous."

"The more I learn about this, the angrier I get," de Blasio said during a virtual press briefing. "Somehow instead of focusing on the Latino community of Washington Heights, a place that really was hit hard by COVID, instead the approach was somehow conducive to folks from outside the community coming and getting vaccinated but not folks who live right there in Washington Heights. Totally backwards."

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This shouldn't be allowed to happen. There needs to be equity for the available vaccine.

[Blue_true]

1. We are only going to get ahead of SARS-COV-2 only when any person, at

any reasonable hour, can just walk right in and get vaccinated within a few minutes. Anything else is bound to not be effective.

[iluvtennis]

5. + agree, that's the ulitimate solution. But until we get to that point, there needs to be equity

on how the vaccine is distributed.

[Dorian Gray]

2. So this is a NY Presbyterian Hospital issue

I live in NYC and the covid schedulers are confusing and there are many. The Health and Hospitals sites will look at any available appts. city wide. They don't say you should live in the particular borough. My husband (we live in BK) got his at Bellevue (Manhattan). He would have travelled anywhere it told him to go, and many teachers have.

I don't know whether the Presbyterian system had it's own sign up or if it was a part of the NY State system (they have multiple sites in NYC and across the state.) For instance, I could potentially drive up to Binghamton. I won't do that, but I could if I found a slot there. (I am not in the group allowed to get a vaccine now, so this is all supposition.)

If the mayor and other people are upset about this (and frankly, it is upsetting) then they should make a PR campaign to get it done in your borough/zip code. And they should limit sign ups to particular set of zip codes. Because otherwise, this will absolutely keep happening.

I have the list of sites that are available. I've been looking for my elderly in-laws daily. I would jump on an appointment in a borough outside of the one they live in.

If they make sign ups way more local, then it may be way more equitable.

[Dorian Gray]

3. All of the above

is to say that there are issues with the vaccine. People want to get it and are scoring the web for any available slots. And they are taking them from people in hard his areas. (But they may not actively be thinking of that because it's not something it's not said that they should NOT take those slots.) A PR campaign surrounding this could help. And ramping up vaccine availability.

[jimfields33]

6. Plus initial requirements were anyone from New York State

Seems nobody foresaw this. But glad they have a handle on it now.

[Renew Deal]

4. I doubt people realized they were doing anything wrong.

And up to this point, I'm not sure how they would know. Also, are people from Washington Heights prevented from getting shots in other parts of Manhattan? Are the critics suggesting they should be?

[Blue_true]

8. I agree. I don't believe that people were being malicious.

That is why I believe that President Biden’s aim to train a large number of vaccine shot givers will turn the tide. We need literal field hospitals all over big and small cities where people can walk right up, get in line and get a shot and second shot appointment scheduled within an hour. And if any antivaxxer shows up to cause a scene or slow things down, those people should be taken away in handcuffs, with tape over their mouths.

[JI7]

7. This was posted somewhere else and said it was misleading

This wasn't reserved for the particular community but for everyone above a certain age.

The problem seems to be in how to reach out to the latino communities and get them to make the appointments.