Vice President Kamala Harris announced on Monday that the Biden administration will invest $ 250 million in federal grants to community organizations that are trying to address gaps in the response to COVID-19.
In comments to the National League of Cities, Harris announced the funding, which is aimed at organizations that encourage underprivileged and minority populations to get COVID-19 vaccinations and apply security practices to help them get the virus.
The initiative, called Promoting health literacy to improve equitable community responses to COVID-19, is managed by the Department of Minority Health of the Department of Health and Human Services and will award grants to places that work with community organizations. The HHS official said the plan is intended to help local governments improve their efforts to improve COVID-19 testing, contact detection and other mitigation measures with organizations that know best how to support their communities.
In her remarks, Harris urged members of the National League of Cities – an organization made up of thousands of cities, towns and village leaders – to accept the plan.
Harris has already sought to reduce vaccination differences due to racial, cultural, and socioeconomic problems, some of which are caused by vaccine mistrust among minorities and rural Americans. In December, Harris received her first dose of Moderna vaccine at United Medical Center in Southeast Washington, a hospital that provides services to mostly black residents in the DC area with lower median incomes.
The White House and other federal agencies have held listening sessions with different groups with the focus on increasing vaccine confidence and overcoming other barriers. When she was still a senator in California, Harris enacted the 2020 COVID-19 Task Force on Racial and Ethnic Differences.
“Our communities are dying at exorbitant prices.” Harris said in February at a virtual round table with participants from local black business chambers from across the country. “We need to remind people that the vaccines are safe, that they will save lives.”
According to the latest data from the Kaiser Family Foundation, in 35 states, the vaccination rate among white Americans was more than 2.5 times higher than the rate for Hispanic people and almost twice as high as the rate for black people. Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that more than 55 million Americans received one or more doses of the vaccine. Distrust of the vaccine among some White Americans in rural communities was also a growing problem in the vaccination process.
Among the concerns raised by government administration officials to reduce the racial gaps is the lack of data.
“We also call on the states to help us get the data we need to know where we are and to work with us to find creative solutions to the unfair vaccine intake already in the first months. of the vaccination program, “The chair of the White House Health and Equity Task Force, COVID-19, Marcella Nunez-Smith said on Monday. “I just want to be clear that achieving equity is not a pursuit. It is critical. Absent equity cannot stop this pandemic from continuing to claim lives, hamper our healthcare system and weaken our economy.”
An HHS official told CBS News the initiative is expected to fund 20 projects in urban communities and 43 projects in rural communities over two years. HHS’s office for minority health will accept applications for its new initiative until April 20.