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“I was very happy,” said Vega, “but at the same time in communities of color we did our own advocacy because if we hadn’t done our own advocacy we wouldn’t even have got of [vaccination] location.”
Chelsea is 67% Latino and almost half of its residents are immigrants. Many are undocumented, have low-wage jobs and live in crowded apartments. Virus rates in Chelsea consistently rank among the highest in the state.
Since the start of the epidemic, the small nonprofit of Vega has mobilized the response to the twin health and economic crisis in Chelsea, distributing thousands of meals to families in difficulty each week through its pantry and helping now to immunize the community as well.
“We are exhausted in the city of Chelsea,” said Dinanyili Paulino, general manager of La Colaborativa. “We were very loud: why are you focusing on white neighborhoods and not [hard-hit communities]? “
La Colaborativa’s location at 318 Broadway will open on Thursday after several months of extensive renovations done free of charge by local painters and carpenters unions. When La Colaborativa launched its pantry last spring to feed unemployed residents, the need was so great that floors collapsed due to foot traffic, Paulino said. In July, they were forced to move the pantry to a warehouse on 6th Street while the office underwent repairs.
Workers were still setting up counters in the office kitchen on Wednesday, Paulino said, as staff at the East Boston Neighborhood Health Center prepared the space for vaccinations.
“We wanted to be where the people are, and there is no better place than Broadway and Bellingham Square,” said Manny Lopes, CEO of East Boston Neighborhood Health Center, of partnering with La Colaborativa to host a injection site. “It’s the most central place in Chelsea that people know, understand and recognize.”
Jessica Rinaldi / Globe Staff
The East Boston Neighborhood Health Center contacted La Colaborativa – formerly known as the Chelsea Collaborative – last Thursday to open a vaccination site that would be widely accessible to the public. Vega was more than happy to hand over the keys. The office – which despite appearances is deceptively large – will eventually have the capacity to inoculate up to 500 people per day, Lopes said, depending on the state’s staff and vaccine stocks. For now, the health center has scheduled about 100 appointments on Thursday, with a few empty slots.
Gov. Charlie Baker, in his remarks Wednesday and earlier, has defended his administration’s handling of the deployment, while pledging to do more to deliver the vaccine to communities of color.
“This is obviously an ongoing process and we are also working to add more sites in some communities that have been particularly hard hit by COVID,” Baker said at the Fenway Park mass vaccination site.
He said the state is working with local boards of health, community health centers and pharmacies on a variety of strategies “to make sure we’re covering more ground here in Massachusetts” in vaccine distribution. About 125 vaccination sites are currently operating, according to Baker, and 40 more are expected to open by mid-February, including 30 more in pharmacies, many in communities disproportionately affected by COVID-19, he said. he declares.
The La Colaborativa vaccination site is at least the fourth in Chelsea and the largest open to the public. On Monday, the Broadway Walgreens began administering vaccines to residents 75 and older, first responders and healthcare workers. Vaccinations also begin Thursday for eligible patients at Beth Israel Deaconess HealthCare in Chelsea. Peter Shorett, integration manager for Beth Israel Lahey Health, said the Chelsea clinic, opened at the Parkway Plaza shopping center, will start vaccinating 100 patients a day before increasing to 300 next week. Appointments are made until February 12.
Chelsea is also piloting a mobile vaccination program, according to city manager Thomas Ambrosino, which is expected to begin in low-income senior housing on Friday. Currently, people 75 years of age and older are eligible for the vaccine.
“We’re in pretty good shape for this small population that is currently eligible for the vaccine,” Ambrosino said. “When eligibility starts to grow significantly in Phase 2, we’ll need additional sites to meet the needs, but for now, I’m reasonably confident that we can handle the 75+.”
Chelsea’s ability to vaccinate its residents will be tested as the state opens eligibility for essential Phase 2 workers. According to an analysis by the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, 80 percent of Chelsea’s population is employed in occupations such as construction, food preparation, transportation and building maintenance – which have been deemed essential amid the pandemic.
But many in Chelsea believe these workers are not a priority in Baker’s distribution plan, after his announcement last week that people 65 and over would come before essential Phase 2 workers.
Blacks and Latinos in Massachusetts remain largely under-immunized compared to white residents. As of January 26, 43% of fully vaccinated people were white, according to the State Department of Public Health. Meanwhile, just under 4 percent of those who received both doses are Asian, more than 3 percent are Latino, and less than 3 percent are black. State immunization data on race and ethnicity is incomplete due to inconsistent reports from vaccinators, which is why these numbers do not add up to 100%.
City Councilor Damali Vidot said Baker should have prioritized vaccinations in Chelsea.
“We need more thoughtful leadership from above,” she said. The state’s mass vaccination at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough “is great for football games,” she continued, but “what about people who don’t have vehicles? What about less fortunate people? Don’t have internet? Don’t know how to use a computer? We think in a very privileged and classist way. COVID has exposed the inequalities. Governor Baker refused to see him.
Matt Stout of Globe staff contributed to this story.
Deanna Pan can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @DDpan. Stephanie Ebbert can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @StephanieEbbert.
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