Christian Carlos. Peninsula 360 Press [P360P].
The new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that causes COVID-19 disease - first reported, according to scientific research, in the central Wuhan region of China - forced the World Health Organization (WHO) to set the start of the COVID-19 pandemic for March 11, 2020.
Since then, governments in different parts of the world established new health safety measures that, to date, have changed people's habits; in addition to biosecurity measures, people were urged to stay at home and work remotely, that is, to assume a scheme of teleworking and online classes.
Although Johns Hopkins University announced this week that California is 57 percent vaccinated overall, making it one of the highest vaccination rates in the U.S., vulnerable communities in California have yet to be vaccinated.
Ethnic Media Services held a briefing to shed light on why Del Norte, a county with a population of just 26,000, has one of the lowest SARS-CoV-2 vaccination rates in California.
Most of the people attached to Del Norte County are Latino farmworkers; members of the Yurok and Karuk tribes; a close-knit Hmong community; homeless people - including many veterans - living alone in the woods or on the streets of the Crescent City.
Melody M. Cannon-Cutts, Public Health Program Director for the Del Norte County Department of Health and Human Services, made a strong plea to the media to spread the word about the importance of getting vaccinated to avoid serious cases of COVID-19 and remaining part of the death statistics. "Now that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has been approved by the FDA, we are hopeful that the other vaccines will follow suit," said Melody M. Cannon-Cutts.
And the COVID-19 pandemic has been aggravated, in large part, by unvaccinated people who continue to transmit the new coronavirus disconsolately, coupled with the presence - since the beginning of 2021 - to the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 which is highly transmissible.
On the other hand, Terry Supahan, executive director of the Del Norte & Tribal Lands True North Organizing Network and a member of the Karuk tribe noted that a big factor standing between the people of Del Norte and COVID-19 vaccination is fake news. He highlighted the work of media outlets that are in favor of consistently disseminating verified news, as this helps, he said, "to create an environment of trust." He reminded the general population that, while vaccines are an option for people over 18, "children are not yet protected" in their immune systems, so he asked for the cooperation of the adult population in protecting children from infection by the new coronavirus.
Miguel Pelayo-Zepeda, community organizer for the Latino farmworker community, Smith River, agreed that misinformation must be fought against. He points out that the main problem facing the Latino community when it comes to the idea of getting vaccinated against COVID-19 is the belief in this sector of the population of false or confusing information and, therefore, Pelayo-Zepeda points out, "people lose confidence" in the inoculation.
The key area, Miguel says, is to reach out again to the Latino community in Del Norte "to inspire confidence again" and then gradually share the right information to help people avoid the dangers of contracting the new coronavirus and not being vaccinated in a timely manner.
Daphne Corstese-Lambert, director of Del Norte Mission Possible, a project of the Del Norte Senior Center for the rural homeless population, commented that one of the reasons why the marginalized population has not heeded the government's call to get vaccinated against COVID-19 is precisely the state of their current situation. Corstese-Lambert comments that the street people have not been attended to in their social condition by the state itself, which created an atmosphere of aversion against official indications.
Corstese-Lambert appealed, like Pelayo-Zepeda, to listen to the marginalized population to lead them with respect toward a favorable decision that "promotes vaccination - against COVID-19 - to the street population," she said.
