By: David Conde
international Programs
I am president of the board of directors of the largest migrant and seasonal Head Start organization in the country that offers services on 48 campuses and 10 states in the East and Midwest.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the country we had to find a way to continue operating because we knew that the mostly Latino parents would still be in the fields harvesting food for our dinner table.
We took a brief three week hiatus to reorganize and put our well developed IT unit to work engaging remote learning segments of our curriculum while we restructured protocols for classroom safety. It was a titanic chore to be the first and perhaps, the only ones in the country to open and continue to bring the children to school for learning.
As we witnessed parents and other farm workers in the fields harvesting in the middle of a virus epidemic we not only came away with increased respect for them but also decided that we had to find ways to support them and keep our campuses open for their children. As with farm workers, there are other sectors of the economy from first responders to construction workers that had to continue to work in relatively close contact with others because it was their job and they had to take care of their families.
In addition, the Latino community is full of stories of COVID spread because families continue to be together because it is their custom to do so. I know this first hand as it seemed that every time members of our group went to visit relatives in South Texas, someone always came home infected.
For these reasons, 52 percent of the Latino community had a relative or friend hospitalized or died from COVID. It did not help that 19 percent of the Latino society is uninsured and access to vaccines has been very limited.
Because COVID-19 is not going away, it has been announced that a booster with the latest variant protections is becoming available on an annual basis. It is recommended that when people go to take their yearly flu shot they should also take the virus booster.
There is also a prediction that, in the future, the flu shot and the COVID booster will be combined into one injection. That is good news for those that have taken advantage of the protection offered at every turn.
But the COVID vaccine story is one of diminishing returns when it comes to participation. According to research statistics, what was a Latino 75 percent rate of involvement in initial vaccination, activity has fallen drastically in regards to the booster program.
The fact that a vaccinated person can still get sick and the information surrounding that reality can be confusing is discouraging to many people. While a strong majority of adults in the country (59 percent) feel that the worst is yet to come, an even stronger majority of Latinos (70 percent) feel the same way.
There are very few choices for Latinos other than to confront the COVID crisis head on as for many, their liveli- hood is out there where the danger of contracting the virus is most acute because less than a 5th can work from home. The need to work in the middle of that danger is not helped by the fact that 27.2 percent of the population is in poverty and 16.2 percent suffers food insecurity.
Latinos need to find a better solution to this pandemic. This is important because other viruses lurk out there.
The views expressed by David Conde are not necessarily the views of la Voz bilingüe. Comments and responses may be directed to news@lavozcolorado.com.
