To Be Equal: Working to Close the Vaccine Gap Is a Collective Effort
It is no secret how devastating the COVID-19 pandemic has been for marginalized communities in this country. The National Urban League quantified this impact in the 2020 edition of our annual capstone report, the State of Black America.
As COVID-19 swept across the country, we sprang into action through combined efforts from our affiliate movement and public/private partnerships to save lives across the country. In 2021, we launched All In, a joint effort with the Center for Disease Control (CDC) to close the vaccination gap in communities of color and underserved neighborhoods with the help of our affiliates.
Even though we are past the peak of the pandemic, this is the stark reality of our present situation:
COVID-19 remains a severe health threat. Over 43,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 in 2024 alone—and as we enter the colder months, flu season, and holiday season, the risk of severe infections and hospitalizations will continue to rise.
We know that those with pre-existing conditions like COPD, high blood pressure, and obesity are at greater risk of falling seriously ill. People of color and marginalized communities are also affected by these conditions at a disproportionate rate. And beyond the risk of an acute COVID-19 infection, we cannot ignore the devastating toll of Long COVID, which has impacted roughly 18 million Americans. Long COVID can affect anyone, regardless of age and health status, and is linked to more than 200 symptoms, including brain fog, debilitating fatigue, and chronic pain.
Staying up to date with vaccinations to prevent and reduce the severity of new strains of the virus is the best way to protect ourselves from falling seriously ill. According to one study, the total COVID hospitalization rate is approximately 11 times higher in unvaccinated adults. At the same time, receiving an updated COVID-19 vaccine is the best way to fend off longer term symptoms— studies show vaccination reduces an individual’s risk of developing Long COVID by 70%.
The good news is that updated COVID-19 vaccines are available at pharmacies, doctor’s offices, and health clinics across the country. For most Americans, the COVID-19 vaccine is free because private insurance and other programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program cover the full cost. Americans who don’t have insurance can typically find no-cost options in their communities through local immunization programs. The Department of Health and Human Services also provides up to four free COVID-19 tests per household.
Increasing COVID-19 vaccination rates will require the work of all of us. The same concerted efforts to fight misinformation, direct people to resources, and keep people informed of ways to stay safe are just as important as they were at the beginning of this pandemic.
Let’s do our part to keep ourselves safe and protect those who are most vulnerable this holiday season.
—December 11, 2024
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ChildWatch: Nikki Giovanni
When poet, essayist, scholar, and activist Nikki Giovanni passed away on December 9, the world lost a singular voice. Young readers especially adored the dozen books she created for children, including beloved works like the Caldecott Honor Book and Coretta Scott King Award-winning Rosa, illustrated by Bryan Collier. In a 2022 interview with the Washington Post, when asked what she believed the role of children’s literature was, she answered: “Children’s literature is the foundation of the rest of the literature that we do.” She went on: “If children are hearing words and hearing poems and hearing stories as they grow up, they one, get used to it, but two, they use their imagination. They begin to wonder, well, where do I fit in that? And that’s why it’s so important to have children’s stories of all of the children—not any one child, but all of the children, from all over the planet.” For decades, Nikki Giovanni’s voice allowed readers and listeners to recognize their own stories and helped them see where they too might fit in.
In 1999, Children’s Defense Fund was grateful when she joined then-First Lady Hillary Clinton, Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala, Secretary of Labor Alexis Herman, Dr. Maya Angelou, Dr. John Hope Franklin, Dr. Dorothy Height, U.S. Poet Laureate Rita Dove, Toni Morrison, Joyce Carol Oates, Walter Dean Myers, and more than 200 other guests for CDF’s National Symposium on the Arts and Scholarship, which celebrated the dedication of the Langston Hughes Library at CDF Haley Farm. Haley Farm, CDF’s center for training and spiritual renewal, is sited on grounds formerly owned by Roots author Alex Haley in Clinton, Tennessee. It is outside Knoxville, where Nikki Giovanni was born and spent much of her childhood visiting and eventually living at her grandparents’ home. She returned to Knoxville often in her work, including the poem “Knoxville, Tennessee,” which described simple summer joys that would leave a child “…warm/all the time/not only when you go to bed/and sleep”. She also returned to Knoxville memories in “Saturday Days,” the essay she generously included in Dream Me Home Safely: Writers on Growing Up in America”, a 2003 anthology celebrating CDF’s 30th anniversary. That essay remains a beautiful, evocative description of Black childhood joy.
Her grandparents lived near Cal Johnson Park, built on land that had been purchased and then willed to the city by its namesake Black donor for the use of Black children, and in “Saturday Days” Nikki Giovanni described how much she loved going there the moment her grandmother agreed they were done with their careful weekly housekeeping routine (“I’m still not sure what it is about living rooms that makes black women crazy…”). She explained that a different segregated park had the only local swimming pool for Black children, “but we at CJP had the swings”:
“I’ve always thought swinging should be an Olympic sport. I knew, in fact, when synchronized swimming became a ‘sport’ that double dutch would be next. I admire double dutch. Those ropes would pop and the girls would turn faster and faster and the girls running in and jumping out would dance a dance that would make ballet dancers weep from envy…I have no sense of rhythm. All my rhythm is in my head. But I could swing.
“Swinging took courage and patience and balance and the most difficult maneuver is the dismount. I grew up with iron swings that were set in concrete; none of those recycled things for me. The swing was hard black rubber connected to links of iron. These were swings to take you to the moon. The object, for those who do not swing, was to stand in the seat and pump up. You pumped up as high as you could go. You were actually trying to reach parity with the top bar. When you got ‘even with the bars’ (to which I ascribed 10 points) you ‘kicked out and sat down in the seat’ (10 points). If you missed the seat you could still hold on but it looked really ragged. You then pumped once or twice more to show control (10 points) then (and this was the final crucial ending) you ‘bailed out.’ You got 20 points for a perfect landing. If you fell or tumbled over you lost points accordingly. Sort of like a poor girl’s parallel bars. The dismount was everything! And I would practice and practice. Pump and jump; pump and jump. Then Grandmother would call me to lunch. But,” Nikki Giovanni concluded, “I was ready. I knew I was ready. I was prepared to go for the gold medal. All I needed was a chance.”
—December 13, 2024
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