Ousmane F. stands on the corner of Carrer de Pau Claris and Carrer Casp, in the center of Barcelona. He walks over to some abandoned chairs next to a container, turns them upside down, and beats them until only the metal legs are left. You already have what you were looking for. Scrap metal to accumulate in a car that pushes from eight in the morning to take later to the junkyard. “They give me between 10 and 30 euros a day”, He explains with very little fluent Spanish.
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He was born in Senegal, he says, and paid 1,500 euros for cross the Strait from Morocco to Melilla. From there he went to Madrid before finally settling in Barcelona, where he has lived for almost 10 years. He now resides with his brother and cousin in a apartment that costs them about 700 euros per month. “I’ve always picked up junk on the street since I got here,” admits Ousmane. Before he worked in agriculture.
The rental price robs him and his family most of the time and forces them to be in the street looking for pots that he will later exchange for less than one euro per kilo. Little else matters. Not even the coronavirus, almost. The public system has never called on him to get vaccinated, he assures, and he has no interest in doing so either. “What I need is to work and be on the street, not to get vaccinated”, He justifies. “If I don’t work, I don’t eat.” His brother and cousin are also not immunized, and Ousmane says he is not in his plans to do so for the same reason.
Vaccination of vulnerable groups is one of the priorities of the Health department from the beginning of the inoculation phase. Now, however, the interest is twofold because the rate of punctures has been reduced to more than half of what is desired. The Generalitat announced that it wanted to inoculate two million doses in September, and so far this month only 266,000 have been administered, 13% of the target. For this reason, the Department insists on carrying out concrete actions in those neighborhoods with less coverage against COVID.
There is a direct relationship between collective coverage and the socioeconomic capacity of a neighborhood
There is a direct relationship between collective coverage and the socioeconomic capacity of a neighborhood. The basic health area (ABS) of Les Corts-Pedralbes, of high income, is the only area that registers practically 90% of protection in people over 12 years of age. On the other hand, Raval Sud, with a low income, is the only ABS that does not reach 70%. The average for Barcelona is 83.75%, according to data from the Barcelona Public Health Agency (ASPB).
The goal of this health institute is reduce the vaccination gap in the city. In recent weeks mobile vaccination points have already been installed in neighborhoods with reduced guidelines: Ciutat Meridiana, Raval, La Marina del Port (Sants) and El Gótico will be the next. All of them agree on the vulnerability of their neighbors, although health officials understand that there are two major factors to explain the differences in vaccination: “The language barrier and the digital divide,” says Carme Borrell, director of the ASP. “And these two situations also occur in young people,” he adds.
Door to door
Borrell defends the need for “selective” strategies, instead of the “massive” ones that have been carried out mainly throughout the vaccination phase. Now, quality begins to be worth almost as much as quantity, so the Agency workers use it practically door to door. “We have to go out to the streets and squares to offer the vaccine,” agrees the Secretary of Public Health, Carmen Cabezas. “Each vaccine means much more effort than before,” he sums up.
Ferran was one of the professionals who I was looking for unvaccinated people yesterday near the Plaza del Sortidor (Poble Sec), where the ASPB has set up a small tent to get vaccinated. He wears a red bib that identifies him, and goes to establishments in the area to announce the availability of vaccines. “We are targeting vulnerable groups,” he explains. “They let us explain the possibility to them, but not all of them come. Either they don’t believe in the vaccine, or they don’t care ”.
Workers of the Barcelona Public Health Agency offer door-to-door vaccines
Every dose administered is a small success. On Friday morning 55 vaccines were inoculated at the Poble Sec mobile point. One of them, Montse Aguilera, 63, who waits seated the 15 minutes of rigor after receiving the vaccine. “I am a hypochondriac,” he warns, “and the vaccine scares me.” He admits that social pressure has been able to with his fears, which grew after the alarmism of the beginning of vaccination. “I read everything about vaccines: what if thrombi or their side effects,” he says. A person close to him informed him of the walk-in vaccination, and when he saw that the single-dose Janssen vaccine was being offered, he shook off his fears. “I came because I was already playing, because I prefer only one puncture and because I am a volunteer in an association where I have contact with more people.”
The Department of Health, through Secretary Cabezas, insists: “The role of primary care, entities and health circuits is essential to reach everyone.” Also to Ousmane, who does not even know about the existence of itinerant vaccination. “I am healthy and I am young. I haven’t been to the doctor for a long time and the vaccine scares me a little, ”he says. And he continues walking towards Besòs, where he lives, attentive to the containers and oblivious to the vaccine.
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