On
Friday and Monday, I worked at a COVID vaccine clinic in the ASIA office in
Akron. This clinic targeted immigrants who were unable to speak English as well
as other people. My job was mainly to facilitate movement within the clinic and
to check in with people who had got the vaccine and make sure they were ok. It
was an eye-opening experience interacting and talking with the people who had
gotten a shot. For me, it was very hard to communicate with them, I usually had
to use hand gestures. It was very clear that it was much harder to reach these
communities than other communities. Recently, a lot of the media narrative surrounding vaccines has been the idea that anyone who has wanted to get a vaccine should have gotten a vaccine, and those who haven’t are endangering their communities. However, working at this clinic made me realize that there are SIGNIFICANT access barriers still, especially in immigrant communities. I talked with Ms. Tso about some of the issues she faced in getting people to attend the clinics. She listed commute, availability, and trust as some of the foremost issues. A lot of families didn’t have the ability to come down to the ASIA office, and even those that did were extremely worried about losing workdays to vaccine side effects. She mentioned that even in communities that spoke little English, people still knew to say no J&J because of the recent pause. I also had the opportunity to listen in on discussions of the Ohio COVID vaccine board, which Ms. Tso is a part of. A lot of the discussion centered on how to get vaccines to reluctant communities. The most interesting part for me was the brainstorming that went into the process of trying to get people vaccinated. There were a lot of new ideas brought up, but I was fascinated at the chance to listen in on what had used to be obscure bureaucratic procedures. The vaccine clinic truly opened my eyes to some of the inequities present within the system, especially for recent immigrants who didn't speak English very well.
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Wow, Cody. I'm so interested by what you are doing on this project. I was under the impression that vaccine access was fast and easy. But what about the people that can't miss a day of work? Or those that literally don't understand the instructions or marketing? Or those that are afraid of public transportation and can't figure out how to get there? I'm sure you're learning so much about these processes and organizations and the services that are so essentially needed. And you're right in the thick of things. Sounds like this is a fantastic eye-opening experience. I can't wait to read more next week!
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