NY Times Article Features Episcopal Outreach Ministry El Buen Samaritano, Austin

El Buen Samaritano, Austin, hosts an outreach program in east Austin and routinely provides COVID-19 shots, boosters, and other vaccines to an underserved, Spanish-speaking population.

The outreach ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas was featured in the NY Times in November 2022. In part, the article traversed El Buen’s mission to help needy Latino community members, many of whom are unvaccinated largely because of a lack of access.

In the article, Luis Garcia, El Buen director of technology and analytics, talked about the issue not being fear of the vaccine, but all about access. As a catalyst, El Buen volunteers used its food pantry to talk to area residents about the vaccine. Garcia would hand over bags of groceries, speaking in Spanish as he and staff members talked about the vaccine. The organization also plastered social media, put out radio spots in Spanish, and hung fliers. Residents begin to line up for vaccines, with 20 percent getting the vaccine a first time. One day El Buen gave out over 300 shots. Next, volunteers began giving out boosters. Word within the community continued to spread and more shots were made available at El Buen.

The article goes on to discuss the disparities in vaccine availability within communities of lowincome families.

The following is an excerpt from the article written by NY Times reporter Bryce Covert, a journalist who focuses on the economy, with an emphasis on policies that affect workers and families:

When the first round of Covid shots became available, income disparities in vaccination rates quickly reared their heads. Instead of throwing every idea at the problem, by mid-2021 the Biden administration had started to grumble that people who hadn’t gotten the shot were “unbothered and unconvinced,” arguing, in essence, that every American was individually responsible for seeking out the shots. And yet at that time three-quarters of unvaccinated adults lived in a household earning less than $75,000, and many of them said they wanted to get vaccinated.

The article goes on to discuss the disparities in vaccine availability within communities of lowincome families. It also examines the generally low rate of people getting boosters and the need for more creative means to get vaccines and boosters into communities, especially low-income neighborhoods.

Access the article here: https://tinyurl.com/ElBuenNYTimes