[PHOTOS] Immunization of underprivileged New Yorkers begins at Yankee Stadium

NEW YORK | Despite the cold and the rain, wrapped in thick coats, hundreds of people were vaccinated against COVID-19 on Friday at the famous Yankees baseball stadium in the Bronx, a particularly disadvantaged area and very affected by the coronavirus.

• Read also: All the developments of the pandemic

“It’s like choosing between life and death,” Ines Figueroa, 64-year-old Puerto Rican resident of the Bronx, told AFP after receiving the precious antidote. Her husband died in January of complications from the virus, which she also caught, but without developing symptoms.

The test-positivity rate in the Bronx District is the highest of New York’s five districts: it was 6.67 percent on Friday, double the rate for generally affluent Manhattan neighborhoods, according to Governor Andrew Cuomo.

This is why the authorities of this Democratic stronghold of New York have decided to reserve the vaccinations performed in this stadium to only eligible residents of the Bronx.

“Justice and equity”

Since the outbreak began in the United States in March, the death rate from the virus among black and Latino New Yorkers has been double that of whites. An inequality in the face of the disease found throughout the United States, where the pandemic has already killed more than 458,000 people.

However, these minorities are also those which have so far been the least vaccinated.

In New York City, figures released on Sunday show that of the roughly 500,000 doses of vaccine already administered, only 15% had gone to people of Hispanic descent, while Latinos make up nearly 30% of New Zealand’s eight million. Yorker. And only 11% to African-American people, who make up 25% of the population.

“It’s about fairness and justice. It’s about protecting the people who need it most, because the Bronx is one of the places that has been the most affected by the coronavirus, ”Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio repeated on Friday at the entrance of the stadium.

Of the 15,000 appointments offered in the coming days to be vaccinated, 13,000 had already been granted on Friday.

Slowness

Although the Yankees stadium normally only vaccinates by appointment, many people in the queue on Friday did not have one: for many, the registration process is inadequate. It requires a good internet connection, a good knowledge of English, and sometimes hours of patience.

After trying for 15 days, in vain, to get an appointment, Manuel Rosario, 76, managed to be vaccinated at the stadium on Friday, with a four-hour wait.

“There should be three more centers like this one in the Bronx,” he said, who caught the disease without developing symptoms in April.

At this rate, “they will have finished vaccinating everyone in two years,” he quipped.

To date, just over 8% of Americans have been immunized, according to official data.

“It’s really disturbing to think that we could administer 400,000, 500,000 vaccines per week, and that we do not have sufficient doses,” said De Blasio.

Mistrust of the authorities, the circulation of false information on the dangerousness of vaccines, or the fear of arrest for undocumented migrants also contribute to the slow vaccination of minorities, according to experts.

“This has to work out, because we are all human beings and we all need the vaccine to survive,” says Manuel Rosario.

Like him, Mercedes Ferreras, a 73-year-old Dominican, came Friday without an appointment. “I have a computer, but I don’t know how to use it,” she explained.

The same goes for Fausto Lopez, 72, who came in search of an appointment, even if a believing friend tried to dissuade him by telling him that the vaccine would be a pretext for implanting a chip that would make him ” a robot”.

“There is too much false information,” lamented this ex-cleaning agent, who suffers from diabetes, high blood pressure, and has already undergone seven operations. “The vaccine will change my life.”