As pediatric COVID-19 vaccines arrive in South Florida, there’s a push to make sure Hispanic and African-American families have access to the shot, especially now that the littlest ones - children as young as six months old - are eligible to receive one.
“This is great news now, we are able to cover the complete family,” said Dr. Kelly Mudon, a family medicine doctor at Community Health of South Florida in Cutler Bay.
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WATCH HEREU.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention data shows Hispanic and African-Americans have been hard hit by the virus, often suffering more deaths and accounting for more cases of Covid compared to Whites.
That’s why Community Health of South Florida is reaching out to minorities to get themselves and their children vaccinated.
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“They constitute a large group of our population and they are often underserved, don’t have insurance, don’t have transportation, services that we can offer to provide things that they can’t medically,” said Dr. Mudon.
Community Health of South Florida is trying to make it easy to access the Covid vaccine by giving people options. You can make an appointment at one of their 13 health centers from South Miami down to Marathon, and a shuttle bus will come pick you up.
If you’d rather not travel, a mobile medical van goes into public housing, migrant communities, homeless encampments and day cares to reach people where they are.
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“We have by appointment and they’re doing a Covid clinic and we have school physicals coming up and we have a lot of pediatrics at that time as well," Mudon said.
An outreach team of 20 is also in the community educating people about the importance of getting vaccinated. If you still have questions, doctors say, ask your pediatrician or family doctor.
"Present all your questions, cause I understand the fear because there’s a lot of misinformation. I would go to who is aware of the research, aware of medicine in general, go speak with your doctor," said Dr. Mudon.
For more information or to make an appointment, call Community Health of South Florida directly at 305-252-4820, or click on chisouthfl.org.
