SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (KRON) - Where are the vaccines?
San Francisco leaders tell KRON4 they still haven't seen a single dose of the vaccine come to their underserved communities after the state promised to set aside a supply for these neighborhoods last week.
SF Supervisor Matt Haney represents District 6 which includes the Tenderloin neighborhood and Treasure Island, which are the only two zip codes in the city that made the state's new vaccine equity priority list.
"High poverty. They have a lot of Black and Latino residents. They've had high case rates," Supervisory Haney said.
Over on Treasure Island, Haney says only 8% of residents are vaccinated, the lowest per capita vaccination rate of a neighborhood in the city.
While the state's plan is supposed to set aside 40% of vaccines to underserved communities across the state, Haney says no vaccines have made their way to these neighborhoods thus far and access remains poor.
That's why Haney's calling for vaccination sites to be set up in these communities.
"For those people, we need our county department of public health and other health providers to actually come to the neighborhood, come to the buildings where people live and vaccinate them on site," Haney said.
Meanwhile, Bay Area legislations expected the governor's office to make changes to the vaccine equity plan on Tuesday or Wednesday to include some of the neighborhoods it left behind.
It's frustrating for community leaders like Jon Jacobo of the Latino task force who's been fighting for more access to one of the hardest hit communities in the city, the Mission District.
"As a state, we are not meeting up to this equity push that we keep hearing about, but it is just a matter of fact that wealthier residents are getting to the vaccine quicker than many of those in communities of color who have been the hardest hit," Jacobo said.
While no solid changes have come out of the governor's office yet, community leaders like Jacobo say there's no time to wait.
He and his team at the Latino Task Force are trying to take matters into their own hands and partner with providers across the city to set up new vaccination hubs and get needed appointments..
Via Coronavirus | KRON4 https://www.kron4.com
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