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But a new program at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago is helping protect Blumenberg and others who live in neighborhoods with the highest Covid-19 death and positivity rates. Its doctors distribute vaccines to Rush patients aged 65 and over who cannot make it to a clinic.
Thanks to the program, Hattie and her daughter, Jackie Blumenberg, received the Covid-19 vaccine in their home.
The Rush @ Home program offers home visits to eligible patients and has so far vaccinated at least 71 people. The program has 120 people enrolled and a hospital spokesperson says the waiting list is growing.
“It’s a blessing and it’s awesome,” Hattie Blumenberg told CNN moments after receiving the vaccine. “I hope everyone who takes it does well. I think people should get it.”
The Blumenbergs once had a fear of the coronavirus. Another of Hattie Blumenberg’s daughters, Nora Blumenberg, spent two weeks in hospital and needed oxygen after being diagnosed with Covid-19 in November.
“Part of it was going through my mind, but I had to put my trust in the Lord,” Hattie Blumenberg said from her Chicago living room of her daughter. “She’s still struggling.”
Nora Blumenberg, 68, lives in a tower for the elderly. Her family said she could barely walk to the garbage chute, a few feet from her apartment door, without gasping for air.
Jackie Blumenberg said her sister was falling ill and the lingering effects of the virus had erased any hesitation she had about getting the vaccine.
“They must have stopped him from talking on the phone to save his energy. When she spoke, she could barely breathe, ”said Jackie Blumenberg. “My sister is still not right. Rather that my life is not drastically the same, I will take the vaccine. It is not a flu. Life or death – which one to choose? It is not difficult. with me realize. ”
Why the most vulnerable do not get vaccinated
But not everyone who wants the vaccine can get one. And access is often based on racial criteria.
The challenge in Chicago – and cities across the country – is that many of the most vulnerable residents are not getting vaccinated.
Dr Elizabeth Davis of Rush University Medical Center said the reason could be attributed to systemic racism in the vaccine rollout.
“Despite the best of intentions, it (the vaccine) went disproportionately to whites. And I think part of it is because of the system … there is a structural racism that underlies all the structures in our city. We know there is structural racism in the health care sector as well, ”Davis told CNN. “And so, I think we’re seeing that play out even in things like where, for example, the drugstores are.”
Many residents of western Chicago, like Hattie Blumenberg, don’t have pharmacies nearby, making it more difficult to get a vaccine.
The disparities are clear in the figures from the Kaiser Family Foundation. As of mid-February, Latinos accounted for 26% of coronavirus cases in Illinois but only 9% of vaccinations. In Maryland, blacks account for 33% of cases but only 16% of vaccinations.
Uber and Walgreens have teamed up to provide rides to vaccination sites
Davis says it’s time to move beyond the surface level explanations we hear over and over again.
“Oh, well, black people have more diabetes, you know, but that’s not an explanation for why more (blacks) are getting Covid … it turns out in research it’s not no plus a good explanation for why there are more deaths, “she said.
“Why are frontline healthcare workers disproportionately black, like all of these essential workers we’re talking about? I think if you keep digging deeper and saying, ‘Well, why is that?’ what you get is racism. ”
It’s a problem President Joe Biden says he’s trying to solve.
“The point is, if you’re 70, don’t have a vehicle, and live in a tough neighborhood, which means it’s a high concentration of Covid, you probably won’t be able to walk five miles to get a vaccine, ”he told a CNN town hall in February.
Biden’s Covid-19 relief program includes funding for mobile vaccinations, which have started in states like Texas, California and Massachusetts.
As vaccines become available for mass distribution, Walgreens and Uber say they will “roll out several initiatives over the next few months,” including free transportation to Walgreens stores and offsite vaccination clinics; access to pre-programmed trips on Uber during an appointment for a vaccine; and a new educational program with the National Urban League to combat vaccine reluctance.
The patient’s daughter: “ It’s a blessing ”
In Chicago, about five miles from the Blumenberg’s home, a Rush vaccination team also showed up at Maltilde Flores’ home. She also lives in a desert of pharmacies, far from sites offering vaccines.
92-year-old daughter Carmen Flores-Rance said getting her mother out of the house would require moving mountains.
“It is a blessing to have someone at home, especially when you have someone who is Latina, a 92 year old stepmom who suffers from dementia and cannot do anything for herself,” he said. she declared.
“Few of the elderly have this kind of service. I am very fortunate to have you here.”
The day CNN met the Blumenberg family, another patient was unable to get their scheduled vaccine due to a scheduling conflict. Immediately, the vaccination team had to find someone else who was eligible to receive the extra dose.
“We never want to waste vaccines,” Davis said. “It’s such an important thing for people to receive, so when we’re in the field we have to be very careful to bring the exact number of vaccines we need.”
Meanwhile, the Blumenbergs say the Rush vaccination program may have saved them – not only from Covid, but from an uneven system that neglects patients like them.
“No one is above anyone,” said Jackie Blumenberg. “We all bleed the same way.”
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