Frederica Freyberg:

From Milwaukee to Racine. That’s where community leaders gathered Monday to anticipate Tuesday’s opening of a new vaccination center in the Regency Mall complex. Specifically, officials called attention to the stubborn inequities related to who’s getting the vaccine and who isn’t. Just over 23% of Racine County white residents have been vaccinated compared to 9.5% of Hispanic residents. Our first guest is someone working to get those numbers up. Fabi Maldonado is a Racine County Supervisor and he joins us from Racine. Thanks for being here.

Fabi Maldonado:

Thank you for having me.

Frederica Freyberg:

So the state’s third community clinic opened there in Racine this week. How well attended is it by folks coming to get their vaccine? How’s it going?

Fabi Maldonado:

Yeah. So as you mentioned earlier, one of the biggest challenges we had, that we have a huge population here, community of color and it disproportionately was affecting our community. We’ve been working together with coalitions, nonprofit organizations, such as Voces de la Frontera, Racine Interfaith Coalition, NAACP – couple other groups have been participating and pushing, you know, — helping the county and the city target areas that need — hard to reach areas. For multiple various reasons, you know, folks don’t get the same information as other people and what we’re trying to do is not only share information in these areas, but essentially bring folks into these facilities to get vaccinated and really get people to see that vaccinations are helping it work in the community.

Frederica Freyberg:

Yeah.

Fabi Maldonado:

So, yeah. Originally I think they said they were going to do 200 vaccinations starting on that Tuesday, maybe the first couple of days, maybe week. But then the goal was to get to 1,000 vaccinations.

Frederica Freyberg:

Well, that’s great news. We know it can be hard to navigate this. We will put up the website and phone number for people to register for a vaccine in Racine in a minute. But how important is it for your county to have this clinic and afford that access?

Fabi Maldonado:

I think it’s critical. It’s critical that the state, the city and the county is on the same page, when we’re all working really hard to make sure that continues happening. And it’s critical that folks get vaccinated and try to get — so we can try to get back to normal as much as possible. And we have — there’s a lot of essential workers in the Latinx community. People — Black and brown community, poor community — there’s people who work in grocery stores, hospitals, driving buses. You have to get to work. They pick your produce. They help at the grocery store. They’re at the restaurants. And folks are working every single day and it’s very important that we spread the news and try to get as many people involved as possible to save lives.

Frederica Freyberg:

It sounds like you’re trying to eliminate as many barriers as possible for people to get vaccinated, like free bus rides, foreign language translation, accessibility for people with visual or hearing impairments. Do these things make a difference in terms of bringing people in? Have you heard that?

Fabi Maldonado:

Night and day. Night and day. In the Latinx community for example, right, one of the barriers is the language barrier. Folks reach out to me all the time when they have questions around government aid or they get letters in the mail from the city or whatnot. Same thing for when they go to the hospital. If there isn’t bilingual signage, if there isn’t bilingual aid, folks helping them step by step — I went to go get vaccinated about a week and a half ago and there were signs that really helped me out. But then there was a lot of questions that I had. And, you know, I’m one of the privileged people that can speak two languages so I was able to navigate that a little bit easier. But folks who can only speak Spanish, for example, have a hard time.

Frederica Freyberg:

You’ve also pointed out —

Fabi Maldonado:

It deters people.

Frederica Freyberg:

You’ve also pointed out there can be some hesitancy for Hispanic people who may mistrust government. What is that about and what are you doing about it?

Fabi Maldonado:

Yeah. I feel like government has, you know, not always given the Latinx population a fair shake. Folks don’t always feel welcome. They also have some other experiences with countries where some folks might come from where there’s just a mistrust of government in general, from multiple different — for multiple different reasons. One of the goals is to essentially bring folks into the fold and say this is what — safety is — this is how we get back to normal. This is safety. Folks don’t want to — folks want to — I think the vast majority of folks want to get in line and get this vaccination and I think a lot of it has to do with us getting information out there.

Frederica Freyberg:

Yeah. And just lastly, I understand that you were also messaging that people who come to get vaccinations, they don’t have to show their license, they don’t have to show a social security card, that kind of thing.

Fabi Maldonado:

Correct.

Frederica Freyberg:

Just another way to reduce barriers because everybody wants shots in arms. We appreciate very much, Supervisor Maldonado. Thanks very much.

Fabi Maldonado:

Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.

Frederica Freyberg:

As promised, the website for registering for a vaccine in Racine is vaccinate.wi.gov or you can call 844-684-1064 to register.