Staff at Texas Southern University and Baylor-St. Luke’s Medical Center plan to make the college the main destination for COVID-19 vaccinations in Houston’s Third Ward.
Most vaccination sites are in Houston’s western neighborhoods, according to Texas Department of Emergency Management data. However, Houston’s hardest hit neighborhoods during the COVID-19 pandemic are spread across the city, raising questions about whether the vaccine is going to people at highest risk of complications.
The vaccination site is in soft launch mode, with hundreds of community members lining up since Tuesday in hopes of receiving a first dose. It will not accept walk-ins. To register, people must visit the St. Luke’s Health website at stlukeshealth.org/covidvaccine.
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Demand is already high. Roughly 1,200 people had been vaccinated at TSU on Tuesday and Wednesday, as word spread like wildfire in Third Ward that Pfizer vaccines were available on campus. On Thursday, although gloomy weather kept lines from once again wrapping around the Nesrit Science Building, a diverse crowd of 325 people received vaccinations by 2 p.m., with more still waiting. Although many in line were Third Ward residents, a significant portion had traveled from other corners of the community.
Cecilia Joseph, a Westbury resident, received a text about the site from her brother-in-law, a Texas Southern professor. Joseph has been careful about going out in recent months: she works at a nonprofit that helps low-income families register for affordable health insurance, and her son is a dialysis patient.
Before the text, she had put herself on the city’s waitlist in hopes she could get a vaccine. CVS and Walgreens told her to call back later when she asked about COVID vaccines, she said.
“I was thrilled, I’ve been working to see if I can get on the lists,” said Joseph.
Over the weekend, Mayor Sylvester Turner criticized the distribution system at a vaccination event at Settegast Health Center in northeast Houston.
COVID-19 has disproportionately affected people of color, but vaccination efforts are not reaching that vulnerable population, Turner said. At a Thursday press conference announcing the initiative, the mayor said he and other mayors have been in touch with Vice President Kamala Harris to talk about boosting equity in vaccinations.
Specifically, the vaccination site is targeted to reach people who are 75 and older, have a chronic illness that puts them at higher risk for complications from COVID-19 and/or are people of color. Picking TSU as the site is a good choice to achieve that mission, said Albert Myres, Sr., the chair of the Texas Southern University board of regents, because more than 80 percent of Third Ward identifies as Black or Latino.
“Step one can’t be the last step,” Myres said. “We could use many more around the city.”
Staff rotated dozens of people through a waiting room, where the recently vaccinated waited for 15 minutes to ensure they did not have an allergic reaction to the vaccine. Moments after Joseph, the Westbury resident, left the room, Ron Carter took her vacated seat to begin the waiting period.
Carter drove 30-plus miles from his home in The Woodlands to get his vaccine after his sister, who lives in Third Ward, texted him about the vaccination opportunity. His extended family has been swapping stories of where to get the vaccine since it began rolling out to the public in early January.
“It’s worth it,” he said of the long drive. “This is something worth the investment.”
Carter said he was happy to reduce his chances of illness if he contracts COVID-19. It’ll also provide a sense of relief for his three children, who are attending college via Zoom at home.
In 11 states that have released racial and ethnic data in vaccine distribution, white residents are being vaccinated at rates two to three times higher than Black residents, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, a D.C.-based health policy think tank. Texas, which has administered 3.5 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine as of Thursday, has not released vaccination data by race.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 5.4 percent of those vaccinated so far are Black, while 60.4 percent are white.
These vaccine access issues mirror concerns about COVID testing access that plagued communities last year, said Dr. Jewel Mullen, a professor of health equity at Dell Medical School at UT Austin.
Mullen is part of the National Academy of Medicine’s vaccine allocation advisory committee, which told federal officials in October that the pandemic disproportionately affects people of color. The committee recommended vaccine promotion campaigns in multiple languages, along with financial support for mass vaccination clinics to keep costs low.
“We can't expect everybody to find their way to a shop,” Mullen said. “The shop also has to find their way to people with the information they need to make the decision to receive the vaccine.
St. Luke’s CEO Doug Lawson said the vaccination site will help the health system reach underserved communities and communities of color.
“It’s another step forward in making life better for everyone,” Lawson said.
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