Members of Congress:
We urge you to take immediate action to protect our families and communities by passing COVID-relief legislation to scale up distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine, ensure equitable distribution of vaccinations for communities of color, and provide aid to state, local, territory, and tribal governments for vaccine distribution efforts.
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to ravage our communities, the data is showing that in addition to being harder hit economically, communities of color are experiencing serious health disparities, higher mortality rates, and receiving fewer vaccinations than their share. This disparity must be corrected because your zip code, race, ethnicity, or level of wealth should not determine your access to the vaccine. There must also be a robust effort to engage leaders of diverse communities to distribute information about the vaccines with a focus on reaching communities who have experienced historic medical discrimination and harm.
Additionally, we must ensure that child care workers and migrant farm workers as well as other immigrants are included alongside other essential frontline workers to receive the vaccine. Further, people with intellectual and developmental disabilities as well as caregivers for medically fragile children, people who are homeless, and people living in correctional facilities must be given priority for receiving the vaccine.