Durham wants more mobile clinics to vaccinate minority communities

Black residents account for 38 percent of Durham County's population but only a quarter of its vaccinations. Likewise, 14 percent of the county's population is Latino, but those residents account for only 6 percent of vaccinations.

"We have to work harder. We have to do a better job," Durham City Councilman Mark-Anthony Middleton said Friday. "If we can actually bring the services to people that are in underserved communities and perhaps save them a bus trip, that would be a great benefit to a whole lot of people."

Middleton and Latino advocates point to satellite clinics the Federal Emergency Management Agency has set up in various counties as FEMA operates a mass vaccination site in Greensboro. The satellite clinics have been deliberately placed in Black and brown neighborhoods, serving as spokes extending from the Greensboro hub.

"The spoke site like the one in Alamance [County] is really helpful," said Laura Garduño Garcia, of the advocacy group Siembra NC. "[It] has been really useful for people to be able to get appointments on the weekend at different hours from the morning all the way to the evening."

Noting many Latinos lack driver's licenses, she said, having clinics in their neighborhoods also makes the vaccine more accessible to residents.

"It’s not easy to access health care in general for many people who are members of the historically marginalized communities. There are many limitations, and one of them is trust," said Dr. Mary Braithwaite, a Chapel Hill pediatrician and a member of the Old North State Medical Society. "When you are coming to the neighborhood where they live and working with partners they are familiar with, they are much more comfortable."

The Old North State Medical Society is a group of Black physicians trying to reduce health disparities in their communities through outreach efforts and programs. The group recently administered 300 vaccinations at Covenant Presbyterian Church in a historically Black neighborhood of Durham.

"The folks who live right there were able to easily access those vaccines," Braithwaite said.

Durham needs more clinics like that to boost vaccination rates, Middleton said.

"I think mobile units would be a brilliant idea," he said. "The city of Durham and the county of Durham have a significant motor fleet. We have all types of vehicles. I certainly would not be opposed to looking into perhaps using some of our vehicles – perhaps some of our buses that aren’t in service could be used as mobile vaccine units.

"I think all of our ingenuity, all of our creativity, all of our resources as a government should be brought to bear and put on the table," he added. "There should be no idea that isn’t at least put on the table."