San Joaquín Valley counties have long ways to go to reach herd immunity against COVID
.JPG "A person gets information after receiving the covid vaccine at one of the vaccination events hosted by Valley Voices on June 25 in Armona.")
When it comes to vaccinating 70 percent of its residents – enough to reach herd immunity from COVID-19 – many Latino-majority counties in the Valley are falling short of that goal.
For example, experts estimate it will take 314 days for Fresno County to get there. In Kern County, it is 426 days.
That isn’t discouraging community-based organizations from reaching out and educating Latinos in those counties about the importance of getting the COVID-19 vaccine.
“”I think the important thing to highlight here is that it is not a fast race, is it? It is a marathon,” said Diana Otero, senior director of special projects at the Latino Community Foundation, which has invested millions to support efforts to educate Latino communities throughout the state about the need for taking the vaccine.
“And I think this is the hard part, that it would take a long time to do the whole issue of being able to vaccinate all the people that we still lack, although the numbers give us hope,” said Otero.
There are 5.8 million Latinos who are fulling vaccinated, she said. And, 1 million are partially vaccinated.
“We still need 6.4 million people (Latinos) who have not done it and obviously it continues to be a challenge for the community.”
The non-profit organization Valley Voices in Kings County partnered with Adventist Health of Central California a pop-up COVID-19 vaccination clinic on Aug. 1 at Immaculate Heart of Mary, a Catholic church in south Hanford.
“Not only did we give out all 78 of those vaccines, but we had to refer like another dozen to the Kings County Day reporting center where they were having vaccines done because we ran out,” said Ruth López, founder of Valley Voices. “Everybody was super excited in terms of how many people we were able to get out to get vaccinated on Sunday.”
But getting people out to get vaccinated involved several of their outreach efforts the previous weeks before the vaccination event.
“We did door-to-door canvassing, telling them, ‘Hey, this is what we’re going to be doing this Sunday’ to doing some phone calls to our social media and then obviously having it at the church, it provided a different venue where some people’s comfort level was better than being at a pharmacy,” said López, adding that “it was really interesting to hear everybody’s different perspectives on why they were getting vaccinated on Sunday with us versus going to somewhere else where they have it, almost on a daily basis.”
Eleven of the state’s 58 counties have a Latino-majority population – Fresno (53.5 %), Kern (54.0%), Kings (55.0%), Madera (58.3%), Merced (60.2%), Tulare (60.6%), Colusa (60.3%), Imperial (84.6%), Monterey (59.1%), San Benito (60.6%) and San Bernardino (54.0%), according to the U.S. Census 2018 estimates.
Six in the San Joaquin Valley, and their vaccination rates are lacking.
Kings County has the lowest rate of fully vaccinated residents with only 29.18 % as of Aug. 4 and is the second to last in the state.
Fresno is at 42.42%, followed by Madera (37.77%), Tulare (36.08%), Kern (35.77%), and, Merced (32.45%).
Valley Voices canvassed south Hanford and Armona a week-and-a-half prior to the pop-up clinic. The outreach hit 236 Latino households in the neighborhood surrounding the church.
The new organization in Kings County, López said, has been canvassing not only about COVID-19 but also about the census and other topics targeting the same demographic. The group, she said, is recognized as a trusted source in the community, thanks also to the word of mouth.
Experts believe that on average, herd immunity is achieved at 70%-95% of total population being fully vaccinated.
As of Aug. 4, 49.6% of the national population (333,119,610) had been fully vaccinated (165,081,416), to according to ncovtrack.com. The site estimates that the country will reach 70% fully vaccinated status in 85 days.
California is faring better than the country with 52.5 % of the state’s residents (39,937,489) fully vaccinated (20,977,261), according to the site, which estimates California has 68 days left until 70 percent is fully vaccinated.
But how is the 70% vaccinated estimate calculated?
It uses the historical data from each area and produces a mathematical formula to calculate the number of days remaining until fully vaccinated people have reach 70% in each area.
While California is on track to reach the 70% herd immunity within two months some of the six counties with Latino majority in the San Joaquín Valley will take almost a year or even longer.
For Fresno County the site estimates that it would take 314 days (about 10.5 months) for the county to reach the 70% mark, which is 51 days short of a year to get to herd immunity. As of Aug. 4, the county has reach 42.42% of people fully vaccinated.
“Fresno County is taking pride of that of being the lead county in the Central Valley to have a higher vaccination rate,” said Leticia Berber, Fresno County health educator, adding that it is difficult to say when the county would reach herd immunity of 70 percent.
The county, said Berber, back in December and January when vaccination efforts started set a goal of 80% vaccination by July and to have 600,000 residents fully vaccinated by the beginning of August.
“We are not there yet,” Berber said. “We did not reach that goal.”
Berber said counties in the area have not set parameters for when to reach herd immunity.
“It’s difficult to say because of the pace that we are taking right now in vaccinating individuals,” Berber said, adding that Fresno County is at 57.6 percent of individual 12 years and older that have received at least one dose of the COVID vaccine.
Berber said the county, as of Aug. 5, has 418,000 individuals who are fully vaccinated.
“That’s good, but it’s difficult to say when we are going to reach the 70 percent, that herd immunity,” Berber said, adding the county wants all individuals to get the vaccine before the flu season starts.
“We don’t want to have a combination of outbreaks of COVID-19 and flu outbreaks in our community,” Berber said, adding that it would be ideal to reach herd immunity before Oct. 1 to avoid any double outbreaks.
Berber said the health department has 40 vaccination events throughout the county in August.
“So we are really looking forward to seeing the (vaccination) numbers after August,” Berber said, adding that at one of the vaccinations events in the city of San Joaquín on Aug. 4, there was a large number of students being vaccinated with parents taking their 12-year-old and older children to get the vaccine.
“It was nice to see that parents are taking action and taking their children to get vaccinated against the COVID-19,” Berber said, adding that the county’s health department is collaborating very closely with school districts to make the COVID vaccine accessible to all students who are eligible to take the vaccine as well as their parents.
“I think it is important to emphasize that there is still misinformation, that people do not have access to being vaccinated in the easiest way possible, despite all the efforts that organizations have made, because more resources are still needed, and more help is needed. Because it is a very long process, indeed, and talking about these issues is very strong,” Otero said. “I believe that we must not lose hope, that we must continue working and that we must continue giving information.”
The Latino Community Foundation has so far awarded more than $4 million to more than 100 organizations throughout California for vaccination efforts.
“Those organizations are the ones that have been working hard to promote vaccination in our communities. We recently included 14 organizations, more precisely in the Central Valley, to serve Kern, Kings counties. Also here in the Bay area,” Otero said.
The NCOVtrack.com site estimates that Madera County will reach the 70% mark in 202 days (6.7 months), while Tulare County will get there in 221 days (7.36 months) and Merced County in 273 days (9.1 months).
For Kern County it would be more than a year as the site estimates it would take 426 days (a little more than 14 months) while Kings County would take 330 days (11 months) to reach that.
López said her staff is every Monday at the local remate, generally in the same location, promoting their vaccination events as well as signing up people to get vaccinated as well as give out hand sanitizer, PPE, and things that people need to continue to protect themselves from COVID-19.
Otero said that it is important to continue talking about this issue “and to continue reminding the community, I think this is the key, that the pandemic is not over. The coronavirus is there, it is not over. The fact that many people have been vaccinated does not mean that I no longer need to be vaccinated, that we need to do it and that this is an effort that requires everyone’s work.”
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 11 de agosto de 2021, 6:20 p. m..
