Rep. Robin Kelly Applauds New Administration Effort to Vaccinate Dialysis Patients, Communities Hardest Hit
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Congresswoman Robin Kelly (IL-02), Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus Health Braintrust, issued the following statement regarding the Biden-Harris Administration's new initiative to vaccinate patients with end-stage renal disease and its effort to build vaccine confidence for all Americans, especially those hardest hit by the pandemic.
"I am very pleased that the Biden-Harris Administration has quickly responded to the request that my colleagues and I have made to vaccinate dialysis patients and those most impacted by this awful pandemic. Today's announcement of the Administration's $10 billion investment to expand access to vaccines will save lives and continue our efforts to crush the virus.
"We have more work to do but we are making good progress under President Biden's and Vice President Harris' leadership. I also appreciate the leadership of Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Joyce Beatty, Rep. Tony Cárdenas, Rep. Karen Bass, Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, and so many other members who have worked to increase vaccine access for our hardest hit communities over the last several weeks and months."
Full text of the letter sent by Reps. Kelly, Cárdenas and Beatty is available below.
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March 23, 2021
Mr. Jeff Zients
COVID-19 Coordinator
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. Zients:
We write to seek an update on vaccination efforts in minority and under-served communities across our nation, which have borne the brunt of the pandemic. We appreciate the efforts of the Administration to direct more vaccines into minority and under-served communities through community health centers, public health departments, mobile vans, and partnerships with churches and other faith communities. As you continue these efforts, we urge you to ensure that individuals belonging to communities that are historically underserved, especially those experiencing kidney failure, who are a uniquely vulnerable and disproportionately comprised of minority populations, have access to the vaccine.
For dialysis patients, dialysis clinics represent the tip of the spear for health care and are uniquely positioned to improve health outcomes by ensuring that their compromised and disadvantaged patients are vaccinated chairside when they visit their clinics for care. These clinics treat a complex and vulnerable population with multiple comorbidities. In fact, 90 percent of dialysis patients have multiple comorbidities. The mortality rate for ESRD patients with COVID-19 is 20%+, which is well above the national average.
Dialysis clinics care for a patient population that is 55 percent African American, Latino, or nonwhite. Patients visit these clinics three times a week for four hours at a time to receive life-saving treatment. They tend to have trouble accessing transportation and technology. We know that vaccine hesitancy is prevalent in minority communities, and the relationship dialysis patients have built with their nurses and clinicians within the clinics reduces hesitancy. Their frequency of treatment also ensures the uptake of the second vaccine dose. In addition, these clinics typically have a high percentage of minorities.
Additionally, we understand that many of these health care workers are having trouble accessing vaccines, which is concerning given they should be part of the first group vaccinated based on their categorization as frontline healthcare workers.
As the COVID-19 vaccine roll out continues, please share with us what is being done to ensure this patient population and frontline health care workers are not left behind and, please let us know if consideration is being given for dialysis centers to receive direct vaccine allocations. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Robin Kelly Tony Cardenas Joyce Beatty
Chair, CBC Health Braintrust Member of Congress Chair, Congressional Black Caucus