Wrapped in thick coats, braving the cold and rain, hundreds of people began to get vaccinated against the covid at the iconic Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, the neighborhood most affected by the virus in New York and one of the poorest in the world. United States. True the majority of the population is black and latino.
“This is choosing between life and death”Inés Figueroa, a 64-year-old Puerto Rican living in the Bronx, told AFP after receiving the coveted vaccine at the stadium. Her husband died of complications after contracting Covid-19 last month, and Figueroa got it too, albeit with no symptoms.
The positive test rate in the Bronx is 6.67%, the highest in New York, the state most affected by the pandemic, up from 3.36% in Manhattan, Governor Andrew Cuomo said Friday.
Vaccination at the iconic stadium of the Yankees baseball team It is reserved only for residents of the districtor, in an effort by the authorities to expand immunization in the poorest neighborhoods.
“This is about justice”
Since the pandemic started in March, the death rate for blacks and latinos has doubled that of whites in New York. Something similar has happened in the rest of the United States, where a total of more than 453,000 people have died from the virus.
These minorities have received the fewest vaccines, according to the first reports. In New York City, non-Hispanic whites had received 48% of the doses as of Sunday, despite making up 32% of the total population. Latinos and Blacks instead received 15% and 11% respectively, while representing 29% and 24% of the population.
“This is an important moment. This is about equality. This is about justice. This is about protecting the people who need it most, because the Bronx is one of the places to suffer from the coronavirus crisis.” Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday at the stadium gates.
Of the 15,000 vaccinations scheduled in the Bronx this week, 13,000 are already scheduled appointments.
“We are all human”
After 15 days of unsuccessful searching for an appointment to get vaccinated, Manuel Rosario, 76, reached his goal after nearly four hours in line at Yankee Stadium.
“There should be three equal centers in the Bronx,” said this elderly man who had asymptomatic covid in April. At this rate, “they will vaccinate all people within two years,” he says ironically.
In addition to vaccination at the stadium, there should be “in clinics, in pharmacies,” said Filomena Valdez, a 67-year-old Afro-Dominican woman who was vaccinated Friday.
But there is a nationwide shortage, and only 8.4% of Americans have received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to government data.
“It is very worrying that we could now give 400,000, 500,000 vaccines a day, and we cannot get supplies,” said the mayor.
The lack of access to make appointments -in New York they mainly happen online-, in addition to other factors such as lack of trust in institutions, the circulation of false information, not speaking English or fear of deportation, have resulted in fewer blacks and Latinos. vaccinated, say several experts.
“This needs to be regulated because we are all human and we all need the vaccine to survive,” Rosario said after complaining about the many hours of standing and her spinal pain.
Like him, Dominican Mercedes Ferreras, 73, lined up outside Yankee Stadium hoping to get a date in person. “I have a computer, but I don’t know how to use it,” he said.
Fausto López, a 72-year-old ex-cleaner who wore the blue Yankees baseball cap, also went to the stadium without an appointment, although a very religious friend of his told him they would implant a chip along with the vaccine and he would look “like a robot.”.
“There is too much false information,” complained López, who “has many illnesses: diabetes, high blood pressure and seven operations.”
The vaccine “will change my life,” he said.