Public health officials warn fears about immigration crackdowns are discouraging people from getting vaccinations.
The Big Cities Health Coalition, a group of local health officials from large metropolitan areas across the country, raised the concerns earlier this month ahead of major changes to federal vaccine recommendations. The director of Dallas County Health and Human Services, Dr. Philip Huang, said his staff has seen those concerns affect the North Texas community.
“Dallas County is very diverse,” Huang said. “One of the things that we hear from a lot of the population is concerns about what are we going to do with the information that we're collecting as we're registering people.”
More than 40% of Dallas County residents are Hispanic or Latino, according to the latest U.S. Census. With increased concerns about actions taken by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Huang said more people are worried about accessing preventive care – like vaccines.
“[DCHHS staff are] hearing these concerns about us being part of government,” Huang said. “We built a lot of trust with our community partners and we really value that. But…our staff are hearing these concerns expressed by the people going to our events and just the word in the community.”
Huang said that contributed to some of the declines the county has seen in vaccination rates, leaving more people unprotected from dangerous illnesses. While the lag in data makes it difficult to see the effect of more recent factors, there’s already been a decline in people getting various vaccines.
Last respiratory virus season, only 16.5% of Texas adults received the COVID-19 vaccine by late spring, according to CDC data. And that trend isn’t exclusive to COVID-19. Providers around North Texas said fewer people have been getting vaccines this season, and those who have, got it later.
When fewer people are vaccinated, it can be easier for a virus to spread throughout a community, which puts even more people at risk.
Raynard Washington, chair of BCHC and an epidemiologist in North Carolina, said fear of being detained or deported by ICE has caused people to be hesitant about a lot of services.
“This is not explicitly related to vaccines,” Washington said. “This is related to our experience as local health officials for really all of our services.”
Washington is a local health official for the city of Charlotte, where he said there’s been an increase in law enforcement and border patrol.
“We saw a nearly 50% increase in no shows...from the beginning of that operation,” Washington said.
He and other officials said it can take a while to recover from that type of interruption in care.
“Not just folks not showing up to our vaccine clinics, but not showing up to our WIC clinics, our adult health clinics, as well as people, students not showing up to school,” Washington said. “That impact is not exclusively vaccine related. I think that is [an] artifact of the increase in enforcement activity in our communities.”
Abigail Ruhman is KERA’s health reporter. Got a tip? Email Abigail at aruhman@kera.org.
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