NC isn’t checking immigration status as it offers COVID vaccine but residents have fears
As a housekeeper, Ana Huerta has spent the pandemic disinfecting and cleaning surfaces in homes and factories in the Triangle and is unable to work from home.
Huerta, a Mexican immigrant, wants to be vaccinated to avoid bringing the coronavirus home to her two small children, but she has worried that lacking legal immigration status could prevent her from getting the COVID-19 vaccine.
“It would make no sense to not vaccinate someone over legal status if the point is to get rid of the virus,” Huerta, 38, said in Spanish to The News & Observer. “I think that would be selfish, or even racist.”
North Carolina plans to vaccinate frontline essential workers like Huerta in Group 3, those who work with the public and are at higher risk of being exposed to COVID-19.
That includes teachers, first responders, food and agricultural workers, grocery store workers and manufacturing workers, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
That means many of North Carolina’s estimated 325,000 unauthorized immigrants — many who work in those industries — could be eligible next to get the vaccine. The state is currently making its way through Group 1, healthcare workers and nursing home residents and staff, and Group 2, anyone 65 years or older.
“The COVID-19 vaccine will be available per the state’s rollout plan and free of charge, regardless of access to health insurance or legal status,” the state Department of Health and Human Services said earlier this month.
While the timeline for Group 3 depends on the speed of vaccine administration, which has been slower than expected so far, health leaders and immigration advocates are working now to ease the potential concerns and distrust around the vaccine.
Community outreach
Hesitancy is common among local Latino communities, and especially among people living in the United States without legal status, said Lariza Garzón, executive director of the Episcopal Farmworker Ministry, an eastern North Carolina immigrant labor advocacy nonprofit.
“Fear is always one of the biggest issues,” Garzón said.
People may be wary of getting vaccinated after hearing about testing sites run by National Guard troops, or those with a police presence, Garzón said. She often sees those same fears keeping people from seeking help during hurricanes.
“When they see the police car right in front of the door, they turn around, and they decide to stay at home, even if it’s not safe,” Garzón said.
Those concerns are in addition to the general worries about the safety of the vaccine itself.
NCDHHS is investing in outreach to Latino immigrant communities through a fully translated vaccine information website at covid19.ncdhhs.gov/vacuna with infographics and videos, including a “Vaccine 101” presentation in Spanish.
The material can be used by grassroots organizations and nonprofits, which Durham-based Latino advocacy group El Centro Hispano recently said would be used in an outreach campaign.
Greenlight Ready, a program launched by Duke Health to share Duke’s best practices in the pandemic, is hosting a weekly Spanish town hall presentation to answer community questions about the vaccine with the guidance of NCDHHS.
In a recent presentation, Spanish speakers were given “true or false?” questions surrounding the vaccines, asked questions in a Q&A format and reviewed NCDHHS vaccine infographics.
Dr. Viviana Martinez-Bianchi, a Duke Health doctor and adviser to NCDHHS, praises the decision to administer the vaccine to everyone, no matter their immigration status. Immigrants without legal status tend to work in high-risk, close quarters industries: poultry and meatpacking plants, hospitality and food service.
Latinos, in particular, often live in multi-generational homes and are often uninsured or lack sufficient access to health care, which makes them more susceptible to illness if they can’t receive treatment.
“We can’t divide between citizens and non-citizens, permanent residents and non-permanent residents,” Martinez-Bianchi told The News & Observer. “We are vaccinating to get to herd immunity. If you’re on the soil of the United States ... they should all receive the vaccine, irrespective of what their legal status is.”
Getting the vaccine to everyone matters from a human rights, health equity and economic perspective, she says.
“This will affect the economy in regards to essential workers who are working in vital professions and vital jobs for the economy of North Carolina,” Martinez-Bianchi said.
Benefit for essential industries
The state’s inclusive vaccination directives stand to benefit its agricultural industry, where a significant number of immigrants work.
At least 4,346 virus cases and 21 deaths among workers in meat processing plants have been reported by NCDHHS since the start of the pandemic in March, with cases at the plants peaking last summer.
The NCDHHS has reported over 4,000 cases and 17 deaths connected to outbreaks at congregate living facilities that include migrant farmworker housing across North Carolina tobacco and produce farms. The exact number of these cases attributed specifically to migrant farmworkers isn’t included in the state’s report.
Nebraska’s Republican governor Pete Ricketts made headlines this month after saying he didn’t expect immigrants living in the United States illegally would be part of that state’s vaccination efforts to prioritize meatpacking plant workers. Those workers need to live in the country legally to work, he said.
A spokesperson for Ricketts later said those workers would not be excluded but would be last in line, despite working in the same industry.
Karina Moreno works in the food processing industry in Chatham County at the Mountaire Farms poultry plant, where several COVID-19 clusters — translating to hundreds of individuals — were reported last summer.
Moreno, 25, told The N&O that North Carolina’s inclusion of all workers is good for the large portion of Latino immigrant workers at the plant. She said many coworkers got sick from the coronavirus and were hospitalized last year.
“If they want people to stop getting sick, [no state] should say that only people who are citizens can get it,” said Moreno. “It should be equal if they really, really want to finish with COVID-19.”
Mistrust of the vaccine
But Moreno is reluctant to take the vaccine herself, out of distrust of the government and fear of the vaccine’s side effects.
“To be honest with you, it doesn’t sit well with me,” she said.
The CDC reports common side effects include pain and swelling at the site of the shot with the potential for fever, chills, fatigue and headaches. But the CDC said the side effects are “normal signs” and should be temporary. The two vaccines in use now — Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech — both have received emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and health officials continue to reassure people about the vaccines’ safety.
NCDHHS Secretary Dr. Mandy Cohen said she knows some people may worry about providing their personal information to health care providers. That information does not go beyond those administering the vaccine, she said in December, and is used to keep track of vaccine doses.
Fears may still remain of being billed for vaccines, as Garzón said some have been for COVID-19 testing. And she said many question the vaccine’s safety due to a general distrust of a medical system that often has failed them.
Puerto Ricans were medically experimented on by the United States in the past, she added, creating a similar vaccine reluctance that is common among some Black people, who are wary because of the Tuskegee Study, a decades-long government study of syphilis among Black men and women. And few undocumented people have access to a doctors who might assuage these concerns.
Garzón suggests that state health officials should invest in educational outreach campaigns specifically targeted at those in the country illegally as well as hold community vaccination events facilitated by community organizations.
Community education campaigns are necessary, said Garzón, but governments should work to build deeper trust with immigrant communities by “just acknowledging some of the mistrust.”
Dr. David Wohl, an infectious disease specialist at the UNC School of Medicine, said there’s no intentional obstacles at vaccination clinics for people without legal citizenship status. But he said lack of information about the vaccine rollout may unintentionally create distrust.
“It’s confusing for people to know if they’re eligible or who to call or how to get vaccinated,” said Wohl, who is also medical director of the COVID Vaccination Clinic at UNC Hospitals’ Hillsborough campus.
He said North Carolina has already adjusted its vaccination plan since it was first released in October, with changes made to align with new, evolving guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“We haven’t gotten a lot of communication from Washington, so the states are left holding the bag trying to relay this information,” Wohl said.
Wohl said he and other vaccination center directors are hoping to hold vaccination events that will be accessible to people who may not have their own transportation, such as at churches or at meatpacking plants. But with the vaccine supply still severely limited, the plans have not been solidified, he said.
North Carolina announced this week that it would send about $2.5 million in federal coronavirus relief funds to local transit agencies to provide free rides for those getting the vaccine, The N&O reported. The state said that could help an estimated 30,000 people.
Ilana Dubester, executive director of The Hispanic Liason/El Vínculo Hispano, an immigrant advocacy organization in Chatham County, said communication about the vaccine to people who don’t speak English has been especially limited.
Dubester’s organization is working with Wohl and local health officials to develop outreach materials in Spanish for her area.
“The desire is there, and it’s now just pedal-to-the-metal to catch up with the reality of having a vaccine,” she said.
This story was originally published January 23, 2021 at 8:00 AM with the headline "NC isn’t checking immigration status as it offers COVID vaccine but residents have fears."
