For more than five decades, the nation’s community health centers have been a key part of broad scale immunization programs and will play an essential role in COVID-19 vaccination efforts. In a new analysis, researchers from the Geiger Gibson/RCHN Community Health Foundation Research Collaborative estimate that nearly half of all patients served by FQHCs qualify for phase one COVID-19 immunizations, following health care workers, residents of long-term care facilities and other essential workers, under priority guidelines established by the CDC. Health centers are uniquely positioned to reach deeply impoverished, disproportionately minority populations that face elevated health risks for COVID-19. Because of their deep roots in the community, health center clinicians are well positioned to address COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy concerns in historically underserved populations that may not trust the medical establishment, the researchers said. Targeting the highest-risk people and communities for COVID-19 vaccines and ensuring that they are effectively reached is a national public health priority, making FQHCs absolutely essential to a successful vaccine strategy, and funding support for health centers ever more crucial. Read, Nearly Half of Community Health Center Patients – an Estimated 14.1 Million of 29.8 Million People Served – Qualify for Phase One COVID-19 Vaccinations Because They Fall within the CDC’s Highest Risk Categories. Read the press release.
