Metro community centers hope additional COVID-19 vaccine doses will go to underserved people

Even as impeachment proceedings continue against former President Donald Trump, current President Joe Biden said he is focusing on fighting COVID-19 and getting the vaccine to those who need it the most.

Biden recently announced the government will ship vaccines to community health centers. That could make the vaccine more available to groups that have been struggling to get the shot.

Pastor Virginia Bradshaw from Tabernacle Praise Church told Channel 2′s Matt Johnson that her 82-year-old mother got a vaccine appointment after days and nights of clicking and calling.

“You never know when the appointments are going to be actually put out there,” Bradshaw said. “Everybody don’t have the children to help them or their family to help them.”

She worries about seniors in communities of color who are less privileged and, thus, missing a chance to get vaccinated.

“They’re sitting in their home now, don’t know which way to go, don’t know how to even pick up the phone to start going that way,” Bradshaw said.

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Starting next week, the White House announced 1 million doses will ship directly to community health centers across the country.

Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that Black and Hispanic people make up just 21% of those who have had one more shot of the vaccine. White people make up 63% of that total.

“We’re going to be targeting those that have suffered the most — those that need most the vaccine,” said Dr. Gabriel Onofre, primary care director at Mercy Care.

Mercy Care focuses on underserved communities like the homeless and has vaccinated 500 people so far. Onofre told Johnson he hopes his center will be one of the first 250 to receive the new doses.

“This is an urgent situation. And the more we have to offer, the much better,” Onofre said.

Community health centers don’t always wait for people to ask for the vaccine. Rather, they take outreach to the community.

“That’s one of their main tasks is just to make sure they’re spreading the word that we’re offering the vaccine,” Onofre said.

The community can sometimes be skeptical.

“Roughly 12% of our health care worker staff was willing to get the vaccine,” said Dr. Katie Humphries, medical director at Healing Community Center in Atlanta.

She told Johnson that educating her staff increased confidence, which they are spreading to their mostly uninsured and underserved patients.

“A lot of education is needed, and a lot of reassurance from the medical community,” Humphries said.

She said they’re waiting for 100 more doses and hoping for much more if they’re picked early as a center to get direct shipments.

“It’s the barrier that we all have right now — is the process of ordering and receiving the vaccine,” Humphries said.

For Bradshaw, she said there was hesitancy in her family too but has faith that communities are willing to listen.

“Most of them are ready to go ahead and get this because it has taken so much of their lives,” Bradshaw said.

There are 250 community centers across the United States that will get the additional doses of the vaccine, but it’s unclear right now which centers in Georgia will get them first.

There are 1,400 centers across the country, and they’ll all be able to participate once there’s more supply available.

Assisted living facility, families at wit’s end waiting for center to finally get COVID-19 vaccine The home was scheduled to get the vaccine, but that never happened because of a last-minute cancelation.

Cox Media Group