Tarrant COVID vaccinations see an uptick in minority neighborhoods, but it isn’t enough
Months after it was made clear that Tarrant County was not getting COVID-19 vaccines to minority and low-income neighborhoods as much as white, affluent neighborhoods, data shows progress has been made, but there is still a long way to go.
Places like the historically Black Stop Six neighborhood have seen an increase of about 5% since March, while the predominantly Black and Hispanic 76104 ZIP code saw about a 3% increase. Diamond Hill, one of the county’s predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods, saw about a 2% increase.
While progress has been made, the vaccination rates are still relatively low and officials say the work isn’t done.
The barriers contributing to relatively low vaccination rates in minority communities are a combination of vaccine hesitancy, accessibility, inconvenient hours and poor translation services, officials say.
The county has paid UNT Health Science Center $2.5 million to bridge the gap in vaccination rates in minority communities. It has put up four vaccination sites, launched a marketing campaign and continues to emphasize vaccine education.
Those sites are operating in Saginaw, Stop Six, Ridgmar Mall and at UT Arlington. On Tuesday, UNT HSC officials reported that they have administered close to 14,000 doses and more than 50% of those have gone to people who identify as white. Hispanic or Latino residents made up about 34%, Black people 11% and Asians 9%.
Five of UNT HSC’s 10 most-served ZIP copes are predominantly white while the others include certain areas that are majority white but also have a high Black and Hispanic or Latino population, such as east Arlington and ZIP code 76112, which is near Stop Six.
The next phase in vaccination efforts includes reaching home-bound individuals and establishing pop-up vaccine clinics in high-traffic areas such as grocery stores or churches.
“We’re really planning on the pop-up clinics and doing it in such a way where those communities that have low registration numbers, we will be there,” said Jessica Rangel, UNTHSC vice provost for academic innovation.
Rangel said UNT HSC will also host listening sessions. But trying to change minds isn’t easy, because mistrust in the government and the medical industry wasn’t created by the coronavirus pandemic, but instead exacerbated by it, she said.
UNT HSC opened a vaccination site at UTA on Wednesday after Arlington was left with no mass site in mid-April because of dwindling vaccine demand. Officials say this is the last vaccination site they are opening and it will operate until at least the end of June.
Vaccine hesitancy has manifested itself in different ways, such as the Hispanic and Black communities having historically bad interactions with the medical field and, more recently, white Republicans refusing because of government mistrust, according to polls.
Roxanne Martinez, a community leader in Diamond Hill, said getting information in Spanish and having limited vaccination clinics operate after 5 p.m. has been the latest barrier to getting people vaccinated. Accessibility and combating misinformation has also been a permanent issue.
For months, Tarrant County was sending appointment information to Spanish speakers in English, causing confusion.
A pop-up clinic or a set vaccination site in Diamond Hill would do wonders for vaccination efforts, Martinez said. If pop-up clinics are the next step, Martinez said they need to be open past 5 p.m. for working people and need to be announced in advance so people can plan for it.
“It’s just a challenge because there’s not one dedicated vaccination center,” she said.
But soon, through a partnership with the Center for Cancer & Blood Disorders, there will be a vaccine clinic at Diamond Hill-Jarvis High School.
Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley has been pushing for vaccination sites to operate after hours and during weekends. Vinny Taneja, the county’s public health director, said public health will look to have non-traditional hours for people who work during the day and can’t take off.
“We’re going to meet them where the needs are,” Taneja said. “We’re at that middle part where the work is now a little bit more tedious because you got to get out of the mass clinic operations and into the community.”
In Tarrant County, vaccine registrations are down 97% since the peak. Statewide, the number of doses administered peaked in early April. North Texas was heading toward herd immunity by mid-June but that has been pushed back toward the tail end of the summer because of cratering vaccination rates.
“The demand isn’t there,” Taneja said.
With demand down, Whitley still believes UNT HSC has done a good job in publicizing the vaccine with advertisements, but they are looking for other ways also.
“We’ve just got to find ways to get people to step up and get the vaccine,” he said.
