America’s homeless, who have been left off the coronavirus vaccination priority list or sidelined as states focused on immunizing older age groups, are finally getting the shots as availability increases. of drugs.
THE INDIGENT HAD LEFT OUT OF THE INITIAL PRIORITIES
Although the government does not have complete data on the infection rate among the homeless, it is clear that the unsanitary conditions in crowded shelters and their previous poor health increase the risk of contracting COVID-19, suffering complications and dying.
COVID-19 outbreaks have been documented in homeless shelters in cities like Boston, San Francisco and Seattle.
Vaccination in vulnerable areas will be key to achieving group immunity, the objective of building a barrier of immunized people to stop the uncontrolled spread of the virus.
“It was important to me to protect myself and to protect the health and well-being of others,” said Cidney Oliver, 39, who received the first dose of the vaccine developed by Moderna on April 7 at the YWCA shelter in Seattle. where he sleeps.
Wanona Thibodeaux-Lee, 43, has lived in various city centers as she tries to put her life back together, most recently at WHEEL, a 26-bed women’s shelter set up in the basement of a church. On April 5, he was injected with the Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine.
Government health advisers stated that they need more evidence.
“I feel like I can move around without anyone infecting me,” he said. “It’s good to know that I don’t have to come back for another (injection).”
Many of the clinics that serve the homeless, and the homeless themselves, prefer the single-dose vaccine, explained Bobby Watts, CEO of the National Health Care for the Homeless Council.
The US government on Tuesday recommended a “pause” in the use of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine to investigate reports of unusual but potentially dangerous blood clots.
A doctor emphasizes the effectiveness of the coronavirus vaccine in children.
This marks a temporary setback in the campaign to vaccinate the homeless that forces organizers to switch to another drug this week or to delay appointments.
Watts is concerned that the hiatus could raise more questions about vaccines.
“Assuming that they are ultimately found to be safe and effective, it will be more difficult to convince people, especially the homeless, that it is safe,” he said.
Pfizer and BioNTech said Thursday that trials suggest their vaccine is effective against a variant of the coronavirus that first emerged in South Africa, which some experts fear could evade existing vaccines.
Seattle, which has the third-largest homeless population in the country, has seen at least 1,400 of them test positive for the coronavirus and 22 have died since the start of the pandemic.
More than 100 shelters and other places serving the homeless have suffered outbreaks. The city’s Health Department will use Moderna’s vaccine in the actions it had planned with the group.
Homeless people are at higher risk of infection, hospitalization and death than the average person, Watts said.
This was revealed by the CDC this Wednesday.
The lower life expectancy – chronic homelessness can shorten it by 20 or 30 years – should have given them priority to get immunized much earlier, he added.
However, political pressure to vaccinate older adults relegated them to the back of the line.
According to Watts, the clinics that serve them “were put in the irrational position of saying, ‘We know you’re at high risk, but we can only vaccinate a few of you who are over 70 years old.’
It is clarified whether or not the coronavirus could leave a laboratory.
Now this is changing. With eligibility expanding, those offering services to the homeless are mobilizing to vaccinate them in shelters and camps.
Even before the pandemic, homelessness had grown in the United States, especially outside the shelter system: among people who live on sidewalks, under bridges, and in abandoned buildings.
The economic recession unleashed by the coronavirus removed many from their homes despite the moratorium on evictions.
Cities closed overcrowded shelters to avoid contagion and offered their tenants rooms in motels. Some rejected them because they did not want to move to neighborhoods they did not know and they stayed on the streets.
It is not clear how much this situation has worsened with the pandemic. Many cities that issued lockdowns canceled their annual homeless count this year.
In January 2020, an overnight count showed that there were 580,000 homeless people nationwide. According to the activists, that figure would have to be multiplied by three to obtain the real figure of Americans living in shelters or on the streets.
In Seattle it will take at least two months to get the vaccine to an estimated 575 homes, shelters and services, 85 unauthorized camps and nine childcare centers.