Vaccine Hesitation puts Latinos at risk
By Itzel Mendoza, Evelin Robles, Conrad De Santiago, Anthony Martinez
Miguel Angel is a Thousand Oaks resident who is considered high risk to COVID-19 caused by a recent battle with Leukemia. He was startled to discover how quickly a had vaccine was created meanwhile the cure for cancer is still being overlooked.
Vaccine hesitancy is seen quite often in the Latino communities with 8% of Hispanics are leaning towards not getting vaccinated while 18% of Hispanics have decided to not get vaccinated.
According to our survey regarding information about COVID vaccines, 24% said they did not receive any information about the vaccine.
This hesitancy is caused by misinformation being obtained from family members and/or social media. When asking Karla Gomez, an Inglewood resident, if social media has influenced her decision to get vaccinated she responded with, “it’s definitely scared me more but I know that at the end of the day it’s for my safety.” Although Gomez agrees that getting the vaccine would eventually be the best decision for her safety as well as the safety of others, she has yet to receive the vaccine nor knows when she will get it.
According to NPR a common worry between the Latino communities is, “how quickly the vaccine was developed and what long-term effects it may have.”
Latino communities in Los Angeles struggle with obtaining factual information regarding the COVID-19 vaccine. There has been a higher infection rate of COVID-19 in Latino communities.
Many Latinos are led with the misinformation about the vaccine which has made it difficult to find factual information regarding it. The only way to help stop the spread of misinformation is to these resources available to Latino communities and help make the proper decision towards the COVID-19 vaccine.
Over 30% of vaccines have been distributed in Los Angeles and Ventura County in Latinos/Hispanics communities. As of April 2021, approximately 6,641,945 people have the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and 2,387,785 people have the second dose.
Even with the vaccine, there’s still a large gap between the white communities vs. communities of color. Many Latino communities continue with the struggle to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
