With monkeypox vaccine supply constrained, health providers squeezed
OAKLAND (KPIX) -- The inadequate supply of the monkeypox vaccine highlights an inequity for marginalized communities. The AIDS Foundation of the East Bay is working to reach people who need protection but can't travel to pop-up vaccination sites.
"It's not they don't want the vaccine but they don't feel important enough to access the vaccine," said George Mizrahi Jackson, executive director of APEB. "What would you want to have happen if that was your brother, if that was your sister or your daughter or your son?"
Jackson says it's critical that providers like his organization respond to public health concerns like the monkeypox outbreak before it becomes a crisis like COVID-19. APEB works with UCSF to give underserved populations access to medical care with services like a mobile clinic.
"Giving people confidence, giving people a sense of purpose because that was given to me," he said.
The limited supply of the vaccine created long lines around the Bay Area. People waited for hours in San Francisco and Berkeley not knowing if there would be enough doses for them. It proved to be a challenge for the entire health care system. Jackson worries that wealthy, white clients of health care providers make up the majority of those who can afford the time to stand in line.
"I'm really lucky that I work a job that has flexible hours and that I can stand in line in the middle of a workday for three hours," said Wyatt Robertson on Thursday. He lives in San Francisco and went to Berkeley on Wednesday to get the vaccine at a pop-up clinic.
Steamworks hosted the pop-up and has more planned later this month. It was the only destination many could turn to last week after Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital announced on Wednesday it had run out of its allotment for the week.
"I was privileged that I was able to have a flexible work schedule and I was able to work on an internet connection on my laptop while I was waiting six hours," Jon Wong said on Thursday. He lives in Oakland and also got his first shot at Steamworks.
Other nonprofits agree with Jackson that, as the supply increases, providers should set aside doses for those who cannot travel or take time off work to get the vaccine.
"Once we do have a generous supply of vaccine available in the region that we're doing so through an equity lens that prioritizes communities that traditionally have not had the same access and opportunity to the healthcare space," Tyler TerMeer said on Thursday.
TerMeer is the San Francisco AIDS Foundation CEO and their health clinic will offer the vaccine on Sunday to those on their wait list. They have 500 doses but almost 3,000 people have signed up.
APEB says it will be able to offer the vaccine through its mobile clinic as early as next week. It's important work for Jackson, who is an Oakland native and once needed the same services as a client.
"This work is literally me being the person that I needed to other people," Jackson said. "I'm just as fearful as anyone else and I'm just as curious and inquisitive and committed to finding the facts and sharing them with the masses."