By Isabelle Roetcisoender, AsAmNews Intern
Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander groups are on track to meet President Biden’s 70% vaccination goal by July 4. A recent Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) report stated that approximately 6% of total vaccines administered to date have gone to Asian American communities and 1% of total vaccines administered have gone to Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander communities.
According to a recent report by the CDC, nationally, Asian Americans make up 6% of people who have received at least one dose of the vaccine. However, this is proportional to the share of the Asian American population (5.8%). Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islander groups make up 0.3% of those who have received at least one dose of the vaccine, which is proportional to the NHPI share of the total population (0.3%).
The Association of Asian Pacific Community Health Organizations (AAPCHO) has been working with the KFF and members on the impact of COVID, immigration policies and racism on Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) communities. AAPCHO told AsAmNews its findings regarding the aforementioned subjects will be released in a report this Friday.
Despite the KFF findings, health groups serving the AAPI communities are not resting.
“Our communities, especially those who are limited English proficient and/or low income, continue to face significant challenges in accessing vaccines,” Adam Carbullido, AAPCHO’s Director of Policy and Advocacy, told AsAmNews.
Healthcare has been another important aspect to ensure individuals get vaccinated. In New York, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Sept. 2, 2020, the launch of NYC Care in Manhattan and Queens. This guarantees health care access for New York residents regardless of immigration status or ability to pay.
According to News India Times, the city is collaborating with 19 community based organizations for outreach purposes. Some of the organizations included in these outreach programs are South Asian Council for Social Services (SACSS), The Tibetan Community of New York & New Jersey, United Sikhs and the Bangladeshi American Community Development & Youth Services (BACDYS).
AsAmNews reached out to the Kaiser Family Foundation for comment. Nambi Ndugga, Policy Analyst with KFF’s Racial Equity and Health Policy Program, replied,
“In our ongoing analysis of state-reported data on vaccines by race/ethnicity, we find that a higher share of Asian people have received at least one vaccine dose compared to other groups. As of June 7, we found that 56% of Asian people had received one or more doses across reporting states. We are not able to assess vaccinations among NHOPI people due to limitations in the state-reported data.”
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