{"id":75810,"date":"2021-03-12T13:03:55","date_gmt":"2021-03-12T13:03:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/radiofree.asia\/?guid=1456e58e58851ae95885bea8ce94ec38"},"modified":"2021-03-12T13:03:55","modified_gmt":"2021-03-12T13:03:55","slug":"community-health-centers-are-fueling-vaccine-equity-the-relief-bill-funds-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/03\/12\/community-health-centers-are-fueling-vaccine-equity-the-relief-bill-funds-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Community Health Centers Are Fueling Vaccine Equity. The Relief Bill Funds Them."},"content":{"rendered":"\"Travel<\/a>

President Biden approved $7.6 billion in emergency funding for community health centers when he signed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan for combating the effects of the COVID pandemic on Thursday. Community health centers are public clinics that primarily provide health care in medically underserved areas and are proving crucial for overcoming massive racial disparities in vaccination rates. <\/p>\n

The Biden administration launched a program last month that provides vaccines directly to community health centers, where the majority of people vaccinated so far are people of color, according<\/a> to analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation. A longtime priority<\/a> for progressive lawmakers such as Sen. Bernie Sanders<\/a>, federally funded community health centers provide comprehensive health care to more than 29 million people<\/a>, including 14 million people living below the federal poverty line, regardless of their insurance status or ability to pay.<\/p>\n

Vaccine shots, of course, are free at community health centers and other sites working with the government. As of March 7, federal data show that 54 percent of people who received one or more vaccine doses at a community health center are people of color, according to Kaiser\u2019s analysis. While there are gaps in the data, roughly 26 percent of people who received vaccines are Latinx and roughly 12 percent are Black. Another roughly 17 percent identify as Asian, mixed-race or Indigenous.<\/p>\n

Higher vaccination rates among people of color at community health centers suggest that these clinics are doing a better job at vaccinating communities of color hard-hit by the pandemic<\/a> than the national effort overall. Nationally, only 9 percent of people who have received at least one shot are Latinx and 7 percent are Black, but Latinx and Black people make up about 19 percent and 13 percent of the total United States population<\/a>, respectively.<\/p>\n

The American Rescue Plan provides more than $60 billion in additional funding to staff and expand public health systems that work with community health centers on the front lines<\/a> of the effort to contain the virus, according<\/a> to the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC). <\/p>\n

Despite disproportionately high rates of COVID infection and deaths in communities of color and especially among Black people<\/a>, systemic racism<\/a> has caused racial disparities in vaccine distribution and access. In February, the vaccination rate among white people in 35 states was more than double the vaccination rate among Latinx people and nearly double the rate among Black people, according<\/a> to Kaiser. <\/p>\n