Vice President Kamala Harris announced on Monday that the Biden government will invest $ 250 million in federal grants to community organizations that address gaps in the response to COVID-19.
In a comment to the National League of Cities, Harris announced the funding, which is aimed at organizations encouraging the underserved and minorities to get COVID-19 vaccinations and adopt safety practices to prevent them from contracting the virus.
The initiative called Promoting health literacy to improve equitable community responses to COVID-19, will be led by the Department of Health and Humans Services’ Office of Minority Health and will provide grants to places that partner with community organizations. The HHS official said the plan is designed to help local governments increase their efforts around COVID-19 testing, contact tracking and other risk mitigation measures, while working with organizations that know best how to support their communities.
In her comments, Harris encouraged members of the National League of Cities – an organization made up of thousands of cities, towns and village leaders – to embrace the plan.
Harris has already tried to reduce vaccination differences resulting from racial, cultural and socio-economic problems, some of which are caused by mistrust of the vaccine among minorities and rural Americans alike. In December, Harris received her first dose of the Moderna vaccine at the United Medical Center in Southeast Washington, DC, a hospital that provides services to predominantly black residents in the DC area with a lower average income.
The White House and other federal agencies have held listening sessions with various groups with an emphasis on building confidence in vaccines and addressing other barriers. While still a California senator, Harris introduced the COVID-19 Racial and Ethnic Disparities Task Force Act of 2020.
“Our communities are dying at disproportionately high rates.” Harris said in February during a virtual roundtable with participants from local black chambers of commerce from around the country. “We have to remind people that the vaccines are safe, that they will save lives.”
According to the latest data from the Kaiser Family Foundation, in 35 states, the vaccination rate among white Americans was more than 2.5 times that of Hispanic people and nearly twice that of black people. Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that more than 55 million Americans had received one or more doses of the vaccine. Mistrust of the vaccine among some white Americans in rural communities is also an increasing problem in the vaccination process.
One of the concerns that officials of the Biden administration have expressed in closing the racial gaps is the shortage of data.
“We are also calling on the states to help us collect the data we need to know where we are and to work with us to find creative solutions to the unequal vaccine uptake already in this first months of vaccination program has emerged, ”White House COVID-19 Health and Equity Task Force Chairman Marcella Nunez-Smith said Monday. “I just want to be clear that achieving equality is not an ambitious goal. This is critical to the mission. Without equality, we will not be able to prevent this pandemic from continuing to claim lives, strain our healthcare system and weaken our economy.”
An HHS official told CBS News that the initiative is expected to fund approximately 20 projects in urban communities and 43 projects in rural communities over two years. HHS ‘Office of Minority Health will accept applications for its new initiative through April 20.