Vaccination campaign aims to reach unvaccinated Latinos in Merced, Stanislaus and San Joaquin counties
As Latinos continue to be disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, Golden Valley Health Centers joined a statewide partnership led by AltaMed Health Services as a part of a multi-million-dollar effort with community health centers across California to vaccinate hundreds of thousands of Latinos aged 18-35.
“I think the younger population tends to have this kind of idea that they will do fine and nothing will happen to them,” said Dr. Richa Verma, pediatrician and medical director at Golden Valley Health Center. “Unfortunately, COVID it doesn’t necessarily look at age ranges.”
“It infects everyone, and especially with this new Delta variant we are seeing more cases of younger population who are getting the disease and more symptomatic than the previous variant that we had circulating in the community,” Verma said, adding that she knows there have been some resistance in the vaccine but recommends young people to educate themselves on the vaccine.
“Ask the right people your questions or go to your doctor. Go in the CDC website and get your information from there when it comes to trying to find out more about the vaccine,” Verma said adding that there is a lot of information in social media that are not always acurate about the vaccine.
The ¡Ándale! ¿Qué Esperas? vaccination campaign aims to reach nearly 6 million unvaccinated Latinos statewide, including 74,000 in Merced County and 105,000 in Stanislaus and San Joaquín County.
“I think all of the data that’s out there clearly shows that the Latino community is disproportionately underserved in this area and under vaccinated,” said Jay Priebe, associate Chief Operating Officer and Privacy Officer with Golden Valley Health Centers of the grant provided by the federal government to AltaMed to focus on how to vaccinate the Latino community.
Golden Valley Health Centers rolled out the ¡Ándale! ¿Qué Esperas? campaign at on their home campus in Merced on Aug. 31 with a drive through clinic event with prizes for the first 100 people vaccinated.
In 2020, 54 percent of the patients that Golden Valley serves is Latino.
“It’s really important that we provide, you know, these vaccination services to them, because we’re a community based, community focused organization.,” Priebe said. “The Central Valley is critical to the agricultural economy of this nation. And so, we got to make sure that those patients are receiving the right care and getting vaccinated.”
The goal is to ensure that Latinos, especially in this age group, make an inform, educated decision to protect themselves and their families as they go back to in-person learning and work.
Priebe said not only Golden Valley – which has 42 clinics thought out Merced, Stanislaus and San Joaquín counties – is not only spending time vaccinating patients and supporting the Latino community but “also trying to educate them on the value and the importance of (the vaccine) saying ‘hey abuelita, you have to get vaccinated and here is why.’ Make sure that families remain safe, communities remain safe.”
“I think that when you are in an underserved community, that’s where we’re seeing the largest impact of the Delta variant and overall Covid,” he said, adding that their call to action is to vaccinate 89,000 Latino community members by getting into the community to educate against misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccine as well as to vaccinate people regardless if they are not current patients of the federally qualified clinic. “We want to do everything we possibly can to get them vaccinated.”
According to state vaccination data, to date about 46.3 percent of Latinos out of 13 million statewide are vaccinated, leaving nearly 6 million Latinos unprotected.
Priebe said those who want to get vaccinated don’t need to make an appointment or have health insurance to get the vaccine.
“This week alone, we have vaccinated upwards of 1800 patients in our clinics,” he said adding that Golden Valley will continue hold a drive through clinic every Tuesday from 8 to 11 am. Through the end of October at the Merced campus which is located at 847 West Childs Avenue in Merced. However, if people can’t make the drive through clinic and they live in Stanislaus or San Joaquin counties they can walk into any of the Golden Valley Health centers and get vaccinated that way.
“So, there’s also a grand prize drawing that will happen at the end of October, and 15 patients will be drawn for a brand-new iPad,” Priebe said.
Verna said getting vaccinated against COVID is not just por your own protection “against the worst complications of this virus, but also kind of doing our own part for the community, for our family members, for our for our neighbors.
This content is made possible through a grant from the Latino Community Foundation.
María G. Ortiz-Briones: 559-441-6782, @TuValleTuSalud
Esta historia fue publicada originalmente el 4 de septiembre de 2021, 5:08 p. m..
