CDC has partnered with WhatsApp, a social media messaging platform, to deliver COVID-19 vaccine information to Spanish-speaking users to encourage them to get the shot. The chat, "Mi Chat Sobre Vacunas COVID," is live and available here. "Once the user replies with 'hola,' the app returns a menu of options. [These include] information about nearby vaccination sites, transportation to and from the location and answers to frequently asked questions," according to NBC News. CDC is making vaccine equity is a vital goal to end the coronavirus pandemic. They define equity as preferential access and administration to those who have been most affected by COVID-19.
Latino Usage of WhatsApp
Over 30 million Latinos use WhatsApp. They use it much more than other social media platforms, ...
Latino seniors face many health disparities, including disproportionate rates of disability, Alzheimer’s, cancer, and more. Additionally, they may have trouble communicating with healthcare workers due to bias, discrimination, and lack of bilingual and culturally competent staff. A new resource wants to help elderly Latinos get quality healthcare by helping them navigate Medicare. Anhelo is an online and phone service that Spanish speakers can use to better understand their Medicare coverage options and ensure it meets their needs. Resources like Anhelo, along with other policies, can vastly improve the healthcare experience for Latino seniors.
What Problems do Latino Seniors Face in Accessing Healthcare?
Many barriers stand in the way of Latino seniors receiving proper ...
Access to green, outdoor spaces can make a huge difference in the lives of marginalized groups, especially Latinos. Parks are essential for public health, climate resilience, and strong connected communities. Still, 100 million people in the US—including 28 million children—don't live in a home that is within a 10-minute walk of a park. The Trust for Public Lands (TPL) knows these facts and is working to improve countless lives through green spaces advocacy — including updating its annual ParkScore rankings. While there has been some movement in making parks more accessible, people of color still face “major disparities” in park access, according to TPL’s rankings. “In the 100 most populated cities, neighborhoods where most residents identify as Black, ...
For Maria Hernandez, fighting for health equity hits close to home. When her dad was in the hospital fighting cancer, Hernandez had a realization. “He’s being wheeled into the surgical unit, and he's with me and my mom and my two brothers, and we're all speaking Spanish, wishing him well. And all of a sudden, he puts up his hand and says, ‘Stop, don't speak Spanish, they're going to think I'm stupid, and they're not going to help me.’ And that just took my breath away,” Hernandez said. It made her realize that healthcare organizations must do more to address implicit bias. “Here I was, working on diversity and inclusion issues in major corporations. And I thought, what is healthcare doing about this? And so I started looking into this,” Hernandez ...
A medida que las vacunas contra el COVID-19 de Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna y Johnson & Johnson continúan distribuyéndose en todo el país, nos estamos acercando a la inmunidad colectiva y a poner fin a la pandemia. Un obstáculo en este camino es la desconfianza en las vacunas. La desconfianza en las vacunas es causada por una variedad de fuentes, como el trauma histórico por el maltrato en la atención de salud y la información falsa sobre las vacunas que circula en las redes sociales. La información falsa sobre las vacunas es especialmente peligrosa, ya que a menudo está dirigirá a las comunidades latinas y negras, que se han visto afectadas de manera desproporcionada por el COVID-19 y son las comunidades que más necesitan la vacuna. Repasemos las preguntas más ...
Close to 40% of Americans struggle to meet the rising costs of housing, and Latinos especially face hardship in affordable housing as the pandemic worsened inequities, says a new report. As the economy recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic, Americans are struggling with soaring home and rent prices, affordability issues, and the risk of eviction and foreclosure, according to The State of the Nation’s Housing 2021 from Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. Latinos and other people of color are impacted on a greater scale. "Millions of households that lost income during the shutdowns are behind on their housing payments and on the brink of eviction or foreclosure," the report states. "A disproportionately large share of these at-risk households are renters with ...
The Latino community has disproportionately felt the burden of COVID-19. COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths have been higher for Latinos than other groups. “The pandemic has disproportionately hit Latinos throughout the country, who are already at a disadvantage as they are likely to work in front-line jobs and have the highest uninsured rates,” writes Cynthia Silva, according to NBC News. As more Latinos have been hospitalized, healthcare providers have noticed the need for Latino nurses who can provide culturally competent, bilingual services. Unfortunately, less than 6% of nurses are Latino, mostly due to systemic barriers that prevent Latino students from pursuing a career in nursing. Let’s explore the importance of culturally competent healthcare and ...
Luz Garcini wants to help Latinos heal from the loss of a loved one. “One of the biggest needs that we see in the community right now is that there has been a lot of loss and grief, particularly associated to the loss of loved ones over the current [COVID-19] pandemic, that has not been addressed,” Garcini said. Garcini is a clinical psychologist and epidemiologist. She works as an assistant professor at the Center for Research to Advance Community Health (ReACH) at UT Health San Antonio. To further the study of loss and grief among Latino immigrants, Garcini and her team at ReACH created a monthly webinar series, “Paths: Building Strength in the Face of Loss,” to help Latinos understand grief and build coping skills and strength. She hopes the series will help Latinos ...
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, states have struggled with what to do when it comes to schools and online learning. In the beginning of the pandemic when not as much was known about the virus, schools were shut down and students were sent home to do virtual learning. But this brought up issues of internet accessibility for rural, low-income families, along with difficulties for parents who suddenly needed to work and provide childcare during the day. As COVID-19 vaccinations have grown and cases are slowly decreasing, many administrators are figuring out what school will look like this fall. “We have to be able to pivot,” said Kaweeda Adams, a superintendent in Albany, NY, according to the Washington Post. Let’s take a look at how safe schools are, what Latino ...
