Brownsville residents Jack White, Mary Yturria and Abraham Barrientes are worried that the current COVID-19 vaccine clinics are leaving out those who need it the most and have no transportation to attend.
Barrientes, an administrator at a healthcare service center, said those who are in wheelchairs or are bedbound and live in nursing homes have no way of spending hours at the county’s vaccination clinic to receive their shot. He said a solution would be to have a time frame for nursing home patients where they would go to the clinic, receive the vaccine and come back.
At Friday’s vaccine clinic in Los Fresnos, which was only for those 65 years and older, thousands waited in line for hours to receive the vaccine. Some residents that were waiting to receive the vaccine, started to feel sick after waiting in their car for hours and had to receive medical services before getting their shot. Other good Samaritans were seen distributing water bottles to the elderly.
“We are proposing for them to establish a time frame that is of course feasible for the employees to transport them, within a certain allocated time. We take the clients that need to be treated and bring them back right away, because obviously the employees we have, have other commitments and can’t be there. What I’ve heard is that you go there at 10 p.m. and get service until 10 a.m. to get the vaccine, they just can’t do that,” Barrientes said.
“The individuals that we serve can’t go, they don’t have the transportation. I went there and saw the conditions, they have to wait in the car for hours and they can’t do that. It is hard to imagine in this day and age that we have people needing transportation, basic things, but we have quite a few that are wheelchair ridden, bedbound, blind and totally depend on us. I understand that it’s a big endeavor that they have to overcome. Meeting the needs of everybody is very difficult.”
White said they have been trying to get in touch with Cameron County Judge Eddie Trevino Jr. to have a talk about some solutions for those who can’t leave their home. He said they hope to provide some advice so that those who need the vaccine the most are helped.
“We in no way want to criticize the county. My guess is that their staff is so small and their challenge is so huge that they’re doing all they can,” White said. “We just want to inform and be an advocate for the county, to expand this and to better communicate the resources that need to be there for the people we know are in most need.”
Yturria said she is wheelchair bound and has a staff of five people who takes care of her. She said it would be very difficult to go through all the process of getting the vaccine at the clinic.
“How is the Judge going to know unless somebody tells him?,” Yturria said. “That’s so often the problem.”
