May 12, 2021 • 29 mins
The COVID-19 pandemic brought unique challenges for the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander -- or AANHPI -- community. AANHPI folks are the most likely ethnic group to live in multigenerational households, which must carefully balance lifestyle needs and COVID-19 safety. Statistics also indicate a greater prevalence of racist hate crimes against Asian Americans in the midst of the pandemic. This episode, we hear from a Vietnamese-American who quarantined with her 90-year-old mother for over a year. She shares the difficulties that she and and other members of her community faced in pursuit of a COVID-19 vaccine. Then, we hear from Dr. Tung Nguyen, Director of the Asian American Research Center on Health. He discusses some of the policy solutions for challenges faced by the AANHPI community.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to COVID nineteen Immunity in Our Community. Before we
kick off the show, here's the latest COVID nineteen vaccination news.
At the time of this recording on Monday. At the
start of this week, over two hundred sixty million vaccines
have been administered in the US and more than half
of eligible Americans have received at least a first dose.
(00:24):
The FDA plans to authorize the FISER vaccine for adolescence
between twelve to fifteen years old. This week. Also May
is Asian, American and Pacific Island or Heritage Month. We're
excited to bring you this episode all about the A, A,
and H P I community and now enjoy the show. Well,
(00:45):
hello there, I'm Robin Roberts of ABC's Good Morning America.
How are you doing. Welcome to COVID nineteen Immunity in
Our Community. Brought to you by the U. S Department
of Health and Human Services. COVID nineteen Immunity in Our
(01:12):
Community has been created to provide you with the groundbreaking science,
honest facts, unvarnished truth about the deadly coronavirus and the
revolutionary vaccines that could put this pandemic behind us today.
We're talking about how the COVID nineteen pandemic has impacted
the Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander community, also
(01:36):
known as the A n h p I community. All
of us have dealt with some level of fear over
the course of this pandemic, fear for our own health
or fear for the people we love. But for the
Asian and Asian American community, COVID nineteen also brought a
(01:58):
different kind of anxiety. The organization Stop A a p
I Hate documented three thousand seven incidents of verbal harassment,
civil rights violations, and physical assault over the past year,
and the reporting represents only a fraction of the hate
crimes being experienced by Asian Americans amid COVID. Many A
(02:21):
A n h p I citizens also fear for the
safety of the people they love. For another reason, Asian
Americans are statistically the ethnic group most likely to live
in multi generational households. Now. This often means dealing with
a complex, interconnected web of health concerns spanning a range
of ages. We spoke with trained to a Vietnamese American
(02:46):
who quarantined with her mother for over a year to
keep both of them safe while providing full time care.
The COVID nineteen vaccine finally allowed Training some peace of
mind and the freedom to address her own needs. We
also sat down with Dr Tongue, when Professor of Medicine
at the University of California, San Francisco. He explained why
(03:08):
it's important for everyone in a multigenerational home to get vaccinated.
For A n h PI folks living in multi generational homes,
ensuring the safety of the people they love is just
as important as getting the vaccine themselves. Those who can't
(03:32):
live independently are at a greater risk of contracting the
disease from younger relatives who are outdoors more often for
work in school. However, elderly a A n HPI folks
face difficulties in their pursuit of the vaccines. We're talking
technology challenges, language barriers, and transportation problems. So to help
(03:53):
secure the safety of everyone in the household, it is
vital to help everyone get vaccinated. No one stands how
important this is better than trained to a Seattle based
Vietnamese American, her ninety year old mother has dementia and
requires full time care. When the COVID nineteen pandemic h
That meant she had to stay home and take on
(04:15):
the mantle of that care. Any risk she took what
also become risk to her mother's health. Many other A
n h p I folks are in the same position,
living with their own relatives, people of different ages and careers,
of varying needs and risk levels. The pandemic has complicated
the lives of multigeneration household all across the country. Train
(04:38):
talked about what living with her mother during COVID nineteen
was like, the sacrifices she had to make for safety,
the challenges faced by elderly folks as they try to
get vaccinated, and how she put together a grassroots effort
to raise awareness of these challenges. She also discussed how
finally getting both her mother and herself vaccinated open doors
(05:01):
to new freedoms and peace of mind. Here she is
now with her story. So, my mother moved in with
me here in Seattle shortly after she was diagnosed with
dementia and she's been with me since. So we strict
(05:25):
quarantined as soon as the pandemic started. Normally, I have
a consulting practice, and I stopped consulting, stopped working for
the most part, I had started looking for help, paid help,
outside help for her, and I put that on hold
and also stopped any family visits. UM. I would every
(05:49):
few months normally have a sibling who has retired come
help out and give me respite every few months. So
that really set me up for being her sixteen hours
a day caregiver, no other help. There were these physical
and material things that I did and sacrificed to keep
(06:11):
her safe, essentially trading off my income as a consultant,
you know, an ability to you know, sort of pay
the bills. But also obviously not having help is my
own mental and emotional well being because with advanced dementia,
(06:33):
I mean, she's completely dependent, and so the day to
day care is UM it's hard for me to even
put intowards the level of complete physical, mental, and emotional
just it takes everything out of you. It wasn't that
I was just keeping her safe from COVID. I needed
(06:55):
to keep her safe from anything happening that would acquire
a visit to a medical facility because you know, as
as so many of us know, there were waves where
hospitals would reach capacity. But even when they weren't reaching capacity,
there was always that risk, and therefore that fear of
(07:18):
what would happen if I needed to take her for
medical care. Would there be room for her, would they
be able to have a bed for her, And then
even if they did, what would be her risk inside
the hospital? And if it's something serious and I can't
go in and be there with her between dementia and
(07:40):
her language, you know, I take her to all her
doctor's appointments. I'm the one who talks to any providers,
So how how is communication going to work if she
has to be in there by herself with no family assistance.
So all of that realization led to led to me
feeling a very visceral. It's I don't mean to exaggerate,
(08:06):
but if I was terrifying of her getting sick in
any way. So I knew from pretty early on, or
I felt like from pretty early on, that her being
able to get a vaccine was going to be the
end game. Because TRAINING knew that getting a vaccine would
(08:27):
be crucial for her mother's and her own safety, she
started searching Washington States vaccine distribution plan to find out
when they could get vaccinated. She was disappointed to discover
that multi generational household were not prioritized in the initial rollout.
(08:49):
This was really concerning to me because the discussion at
the time, including nationally, was that seniors like at home.
There's this whole public narrative that seniors at home were
like dependent on their own and safe and therefore could
wait potentially until the back of the line, just before
the general public. And when I thought about disproportionately in
(09:10):
communities of color, because we take care of our own elders,
it really felt like an in a huge inequity, and
so I reached out to a small group of community
friends and advocates to raise this. It was right around
Christmas time, I guess in a sense that was a
silver lining as people were around. It was sort of
(09:31):
a slower slower time and came together quickly, just in
a matter of days. We pulled together a community advocacy
letter to our Washington state governor and our state Secretary
of Health to ask that elders in home care be
included as a priority in the very next group. And
(09:52):
we were able to do that because this state included
in the next group multi generational households, which included dependent
elders in home care and their caregivers who are over
fifty years old, and it also included families with with
multiple generations where younger generations are leaving the house to
(10:16):
go to essential work trains. Grassroots advocacy work, and life
with her mother gave her an up close understanding of
the barrier space by the Asian American community. A major
(10:36):
barrier right at the start was just even being included
as a priority. But then later on once they were
included and eligible for vaccination, you know, you have a
system that presumes access to technology and transportation and primary
fluency in English, so people do who do not have
(10:59):
those advantages. We saw really immediately as soon as the
rollout happened, had a much harder time, if not were
completely shut out from being able to make appointments for vaccines.
In one instance, Training was visiting Seattle's first high capacity
(11:20):
vaccination center as part of her advocacy work. She saw
an elderly Vietnamese woman waiting in line and approached her
to make sure she understood the vaccination process. It turned
out there weren't adequate language services available, and then after
the point at which I joined her, we came upon
the third greet, which is the person that reads the
(11:41):
medical screening questions in English. There was no way she
would have understood those, or she potentially again could have
just been flagged through without accurately answering the medical questions
that are asked right in order to ensure you can
be safe getting the shot. And then we got to
the vaccination table itself, they couldn't find her in the system,
(12:04):
and they called in a couple of other volunteers. They
sent us to a special assistance table where another volunteer
tried to find her and still couldn't find her. At
that point, they were like five different people helping her
um and asking the same medical screening questions were actually
asked three different times. And then at one point she
started to wonder if she had done something wrong, you know,
(12:28):
with all this kind of commotion. It led to me
writing a letter to the mayor the following Monday. It
was on a Saturday, and others in our community collective
chiming in to amplify and also share concern, and to
their credit, the city's lead department UM in charge of
operations here was very responsive. We met with them and
(12:52):
then we had a tour with the Mayor's office in
the department a few days after that, and we've been
in contact since for ongoing and commit Now that Tray
and her mother have been fully vaccinated, Trang said she
is able to resume some of the care plans she
started pre COVID. Most of all, she is happy for
(13:13):
the peace of mind thinking about what the biggest sacrifices
were and what the biggest challenges were. One is I
have restarted efforts to find outside help. I don't have
anyone yet, but since we're vaccinated, that feels much safer,
(13:33):
and of course hopefully I'll find someone who they themselves
have been vaccinated too. And then there's just this huge
emotional relief because pre vaccination there is such a high
level of emotional stress, and so having it just provides
a huge measure of relief for my emotional stress, which
(13:54):
in turn helps me be a more centered and focused
and joyful caregiver. Since Training and her mother were vaccinated,
(14:15):
we've made strides and spreading the vaccine to more accessible locations,
but we should all still help the people we care
about book their appointments if they needed. To discuss how
important that is. We spoke with Dr Tongue when Professor
of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr
Wynn is also the director of the Asian American Research
(14:36):
Center on Health and the Dean's Diversity Leader at the
University of California, San Francisco. He also served on President
Barack Obama's Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders
for six years. Dr When discussed why COVID nineteen is
particularly troubling for folks living in multigenerational households, a special
(15:00):
like a A and h p I people who are
the most likely ethnic group to share a home with
extended relatives. This challenge, along with the disturbing uptick and
hate crimes targeted at the community, has made COVID nineteen
uniquely difficult for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders to address this.
(15:20):
Here is our conversation with Dr Tongue when with the
issues of multigenerational households and COVID nineteen and Asian Americans
in general, it's been a huge issue. The big thing
about Asian Americans, of course, many of them do live
in multigenerational households for various different reasons. One maybe economic,
(15:44):
another might be just cultural because we like to have
large families around, and it's been difficult because number one,
the more people who live in a home, there's a
more risk of infections and spreading infections. When someone gets it,
it is much harder to stay distance or isolated within
these households. It's important for everyone in a multigenerational house
(16:08):
where they get vaccinated, mainly because everyone should get vaccinated
for COVID nineteen. So that's probably the most important message
to get across. It is an incredibly effective vaccine all
of all of them, and so there is really no
reason not to get the vaccine for those who live
in multigenerational household it's important because the vaccine is not perfect.
(16:29):
So let's say, for example, we have older parents or
grandparents living in a household and they got vaccinated. Uh,
let's say with a very effective vaccine in the range,
there's a smaller chance that they can still get COVID.
So people living in the same home with them if
they get vaccinated and then which less likely to get
(16:50):
the infection and bring it home and give it to
their parents or grand parents for optimal protection. Obviously, we
do recommend that people do you know, maintain their wearing
their masks. But the more people who are vaccinated, the
less likely that the infection will get passed around. Though
it's important for everyone to get vaccinated. Dr When has
(17:11):
also seen the systemic barriers that may prevent a n
h PI folks from pursuing vaccines. Yeah, I do think
that n h p I people have a lot of
barriers in getting u the COVID nineteen vaccine. The first
really big issue is that we've relied on technology to
(17:34):
get information out about the vaccine and scheduling and getting
access to the vaccine. That means that those people who
have a digital divide have trouble dealing with that. And
that means I don't have a smartphone or tablet computer,
they don't have access to the internet or high speed internet.
And even when they do have all those things, the
places where they go on the web to sign up,
(17:56):
for example, to get information are not designed in a
way that's easy for them to use, for example, in
the same language, or easy for older people to use
things like that. And then there's also these issues around
fear of getting outside, So you fear going outside because
you may get COVID. Another fear is going outside and
being attacked with all the anti Asian hate and violence
(18:17):
that's going on. So there are all these barriers, and
in general, language I think is a big, big problem.
Train two's case shows that national and local governments are
listening to feedback and trying to improve the vaccine sign
up process. However, it will always be crucial for us
(18:41):
to also help the people in our lives get vaccinated,
especially if they're living with us. So the people who
are living with others who every trouble getting vaccination, the
first thing they have to do is make sure that
they are answering any relevant questions about the vaccine, getting
good information, and because there is still some vaccine hesitancy right,
(19:02):
so now there's you know, what we think about people
who aren't getting the vaccine. You start with do they
want it? Right? So you know, and oftentimes they may
they think they don't want it because they don't have
adequate information. They have misinformation about the vaccine. So you
hear about all this rumors and all sort of these
fears that are not necessarily founded on scientific or clinical facts.
And someone who lives with them, who understands more, have
(19:26):
access to more information, even in English, hopefully can get
that information to them in English or in the Native
Asian language so that they can at least make the
right decision to get the vaccine or not for themselves.
The second thing is, of course, you know, we we
emphasize logistical support. Again. Once a person decides they want
to get the vaccine, they are all these barriers that
(19:48):
I mentioned, and so can we help them make the appointment,
so they need a little bit of hand holding, I think,
at least with the younger people who are more tech savvy,
to help them make the appointment when it doesn't happen
the first time. I think. Another is to work with
community organizations actually know how to work Redision American Native
Hawaiians on their communities and helped have them help you
(20:11):
or whichever agency that's living the vaccine to actually go
out and create materials, create uh, you know, even having
friends and employees helping them get to the vaccine get
to the vaccine. I have to say that, you know,
in my own clinical setting, I had a few months
ago when the limit was just for those who are
(20:35):
six or five and older. So I looked at all
my patients voice six in order who didn't get the
vaccine yet and almost all of them were Asians and
older who didn't speak English. And you know, I asked
the question of why why is that? And again I
already talked a little bit about the technology barriers and
the language barriers. They got a lot better once our
staff started making phone calls in language. With hate crimes
(20:58):
against Asian Americans put to the forefront amid the pandemic,
fear of racism presents yet another barrier for the community.
I do think racism and prejudice play into a lot
of the issues that Asian American and even Win has
been encountering during the COVID pandemic. As someone who's actually
been doing this work with these communities for about twenty
(21:20):
years now, I've been very loud and vocal about the
underlying structural issues that deny these communities access to the
services they need and paid for, by the way, because
we pay taxes to these communities are underserved, underserved in
terms of both what they need in terms of their
(21:40):
their numbers in the populations. Right, So I want to
start with that conversation first, because we talk a about
an individual hate, right, If we're talking about these individuals
who go out and you know, spit on people and
push people and shoot people, and those are very important things, right,
But one thing that we should recognize the COVID pandemic
is individual deaths from isolated events are small. Millions are
(22:05):
dying from COVID, right, So, so these kind of structural
problems are affecting people beyond COVID. They affect them in diabetes,
I affect them in cancer. You know, people are dying
from these kinds of racism and prejudice, and I do
want us to address those in our systems. People are
afraid to go out. Right, So from the moment when
(22:26):
when the leader of this country said it's the Chinese
Chinese flu over it is, it put a target on
everybody's back and they were afraid to go out. And
as a physician early on, actually I was saying, oh no, no, no,
you still got to come in and get tested if
you think you have a problem. This is before the
vaccination days, right, And they're like, I'm afraid to go out.
And now I think they were justified because when they
(22:48):
go out, they get put You know, these older Asians
are getting pushed down on the street and then get
and spat on. So how that's a real fear and
it's validated. It's not just oh I'm afraid and therefore
I'm not gonna get tested. So so so I do
think that that's been a real problem. Now that everyone
(23:09):
is eligible to sign up for a vaccine, it remains
crucial to help relatives and friends who need it book
their appointments, while the systems improve around us to make
the process easier. The take home message I think is
that we want everyone to get vaccinated. Right So, obviously,
as an Asian American, I want Alwaysian Mecan vaccinated, but
(23:29):
even a non Asian American person should want always your
Magicans to get vaccinated. Because again, the more people vaccinated,
sooner we can get back to life as normal as
it can be posed the pandemic. Right, So, so it's
important to all of us to make sure all of
us get vaccinated. So so that's starting with that, though,
I think then the question becomes, well, how can we
(23:50):
help address these barrier So, for example, if you're an
Asian American person and you're trying to get the vaccine
and you can't get it for whatever reasons, uh that
that you and counter you should report it. One of
the reasons why this whole anti Asian hate thing has
really captured everyone's imagination, besides the actual events themselves, that
(24:11):
back in March or some Asian American researchers decide to
collect data on these Asian hate incidents. So as soon
as this people start paying attention to it now they say, well, oh,
look this data has been collected. Look it's real. It's
not just like one person telling you this or the
two people telling you this. It's been collected for a year.
We want the same approach with sort of the racism
(24:32):
that's related to not giving people language access to the vaccine.
So there's this website that we uh people at Asian
American Research and around health. Asian health services and app
show are created call Asian m Voices dot org, so
it's Asian am Voices dot org. And the purpose of
the website is to do what's stop Asian Hate did
(24:56):
for anti Asian incidents, which is enable people to port
barriers and problems that I had in trying to get
the COVID vaccine. The website is actually available in multiple
engine languages I think ten now to day, and as
well as English, so that people can go there and say, well,
I try to get the vaccine, but I rando this
problem because they wouldn't serve me because I don't speak English,
(25:19):
for example. And this way we'll be able to track
how often this is happening. Hopefully by finding out where
it's happening, we can give feedback to those organizations and
places and say, hey, your your patients are having trouble.
Can you do something about it? Right, so we can
try to help solve some of these problems. So people
who are just doing their very best to get the
(25:40):
vaccine and not able to get it at least have
a way to troubleshoot it with systems trained you and
Dr Tongue when both address how crucial it is for everyone,
(26:04):
everyone in multigenerational households to get vaccinated, not just older
A A n h p I people. Your health is
deeply interconnected with the health of your household and your community.
Now that everyone is eligible, you can finally get some
peace of mind by helping the people you love sign
up for a vaccine and booking an appointment for yourself
(26:25):
to Like Training two's grassroots collective, we can all work
together to ensure the people who need these vaccines the
most can get access. To get vaccinated, go to CDC
dot gov slash coronavirus and scroll down to the middle
(26:47):
of the page to click on the word vaccines. From there,
click on vaccine Finder, and the site will help you
determine where you can get the vaccine and how to
make an appointment. Now you don't have to worry about
paying for your vaccine. Your taxpayer dollars are funding the rollout,
so there's no individual cost to you. So if someone
(27:10):
asks you to provide your insurance information, that's only so
your vaccination provider can build your insurance for the administrative costs,
but you will not be personally responsible for any expenses.
I'd like to thank our guests Trained to and Dr
Tongue Wed for sharing their thoughts and their expertise with
us today. Hope you go to tune in again for
(27:31):
episode five and which we'll talk about the importance of
being a health decision maker and caregiver for family, friends,
and loved ones, and how community health care navigators can
serve as trusted messengers for the people we care about.
(27:55):
COVID nineteen immunity in our community was developed and paid
for by the US to Apartment of Health and Human Services,
part of a public education campaign to increase public confidence
in COVID nineteen vaccines while reinforcing basic prevention measures. We
Can Do This presented by I Heart Radio and ABC News.
(28:16):
This podcast is hosted by me Robin Roberts. The episode
was executive produced Ethan Fixal with production by Wonder Media Network.
It was written, engineered, and edited by Edie Aller to
Triple Threat, with research assistance from Alessandra Tata. If you
(28:37):
haven't already subscribed, rated, or reviewed COVID nineteen immunity in
our community, what are you waiting for? Please do so
on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you get your podcasts until next week. I am Robin
Roberts and this is COVID nineteen immunity in our community.
(28:58):
We could do this. Thank for listening.
Welcome to COVID nineteen Immunity in Our Community. Before we
kick off the show, here's the latest COVID nineteen vaccination news.
At the time of this recording on Monday. At the
start of this week, over two hundred sixty million vaccines
have been administered in the US and more than half
of eligible Americans have received at least a first dose.
(00:24):
The FDA plans to authorize the FISER vaccine for adolescence
between twelve to fifteen years old. This week. Also May
is Asian, American and Pacific Island or Heritage Month. We're
excited to bring you this episode all about the A, A,
and H P I community and now enjoy the show. Well,
(00:45):
hello there, I'm Robin Roberts of ABC's Good Morning America.
How are you doing. Welcome to COVID nineteen Immunity in
Our Community. Brought to you by the U. S Department
of Health and Human Services. COVID nineteen Immunity in Our
(01:12):
Community has been created to provide you with the groundbreaking science,
honest facts, unvarnished truth about the deadly coronavirus and the
revolutionary vaccines that could put this pandemic behind us today.
We're talking about how the COVID nineteen pandemic has impacted
the Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander community, also
(01:36):
known as the A n h p I community. All
of us have dealt with some level of fear over
the course of this pandemic, fear for our own health
or fear for the people we love. But for the
Asian and Asian American community, COVID nineteen also brought a
(01:58):
different kind of anxiety. The organization Stop A a p
I Hate documented three thousand seven incidents of verbal harassment,
civil rights violations, and physical assault over the past year,
and the reporting represents only a fraction of the hate
crimes being experienced by Asian Americans amid COVID. Many A
(02:21):
A n h p I citizens also fear for the
safety of the people they love. For another reason, Asian
Americans are statistically the ethnic group most likely to live
in multi generational households. Now. This often means dealing with
a complex, interconnected web of health concerns spanning a range
of ages. We spoke with trained to a Vietnamese American
(02:46):
who quarantined with her mother for over a year to
keep both of them safe while providing full time care.
The COVID nineteen vaccine finally allowed Training some peace of
mind and the freedom to address her own needs. We
also sat down with Dr Tongue, when Professor of Medicine
at the University of California, San Francisco. He explained why
(03:08):
it's important for everyone in a multigenerational home to get vaccinated.
For A n h PI folks living in multi generational homes,
ensuring the safety of the people they love is just
as important as getting the vaccine themselves. Those who can't
(03:32):
live independently are at a greater risk of contracting the
disease from younger relatives who are outdoors more often for
work in school. However, elderly a A n HPI folks
face difficulties in their pursuit of the vaccines. We're talking
technology challenges, language barriers, and transportation problems. So to help
(03:53):
secure the safety of everyone in the household, it is
vital to help everyone get vaccinated. No one stands how
important this is better than trained to a Seattle based
Vietnamese American, her ninety year old mother has dementia and
requires full time care. When the COVID nineteen pandemic h
That meant she had to stay home and take on
(04:15):
the mantle of that care. Any risk she took what
also become risk to her mother's health. Many other A
n h p I folks are in the same position,
living with their own relatives, people of different ages and careers,
of varying needs and risk levels. The pandemic has complicated
the lives of multigeneration household all across the country. Train
(04:38):
talked about what living with her mother during COVID nineteen
was like, the sacrifices she had to make for safety,
the challenges faced by elderly folks as they try to
get vaccinated, and how she put together a grassroots effort
to raise awareness of these challenges. She also discussed how
finally getting both her mother and herself vaccinated open doors
(05:01):
to new freedoms and peace of mind. Here she is
now with her story. So, my mother moved in with
me here in Seattle shortly after she was diagnosed with
dementia and she's been with me since. So we strict
(05:25):
quarantined as soon as the pandemic started. Normally, I have
a consulting practice, and I stopped consulting, stopped working for
the most part, I had started looking for help, paid help,
outside help for her, and I put that on hold
and also stopped any family visits. UM. I would every
(05:49):
few months normally have a sibling who has retired come
help out and give me respite every few months. So
that really set me up for being her sixteen hours
a day caregiver, no other help. There were these physical
and material things that I did and sacrificed to keep
(06:11):
her safe, essentially trading off my income as a consultant,
you know, an ability to you know, sort of pay
the bills. But also obviously not having help is my
own mental and emotional well being because with advanced dementia,
(06:33):
I mean, she's completely dependent, and so the day to
day care is UM it's hard for me to even
put intowards the level of complete physical, mental, and emotional
just it takes everything out of you. It wasn't that
I was just keeping her safe from COVID. I needed
(06:55):
to keep her safe from anything happening that would acquire
a visit to a medical facility because you know, as
as so many of us know, there were waves where
hospitals would reach capacity. But even when they weren't reaching capacity,
there was always that risk, and therefore that fear of
(07:18):
what would happen if I needed to take her for
medical care. Would there be room for her, would they
be able to have a bed for her, And then
even if they did, what would be her risk inside
the hospital? And if it's something serious and I can't
go in and be there with her between dementia and
(07:40):
her language, you know, I take her to all her
doctor's appointments. I'm the one who talks to any providers,
So how how is communication going to work if she
has to be in there by herself with no family assistance.
So all of that realization led to led to me
feeling a very visceral. It's I don't mean to exaggerate,
(08:06):
but if I was terrifying of her getting sick in
any way. So I knew from pretty early on, or
I felt like from pretty early on, that her being
able to get a vaccine was going to be the
end game. Because TRAINING knew that getting a vaccine would
(08:27):
be crucial for her mother's and her own safety, she
started searching Washington States vaccine distribution plan to find out
when they could get vaccinated. She was disappointed to discover
that multi generational household were not prioritized in the initial rollout.
(08:49):
This was really concerning to me because the discussion at
the time, including nationally, was that seniors like at home.
There's this whole public narrative that seniors at home were
like dependent on their own and safe and therefore could
wait potentially until the back of the line, just before
the general public. And when I thought about disproportionately in
(09:10):
communities of color, because we take care of our own elders,
it really felt like an in a huge inequity, and
so I reached out to a small group of community
friends and advocates to raise this. It was right around
Christmas time, I guess in a sense that was a
silver lining as people were around. It was sort of
(09:31):
a slower slower time and came together quickly, just in
a matter of days. We pulled together a community advocacy
letter to our Washington state governor and our state Secretary
of Health to ask that elders in home care be
included as a priority in the very next group. And
(09:52):
we were able to do that because this state included
in the next group multi generational households, which included dependent
elders in home care and their caregivers who are over
fifty years old, and it also included families with with
multiple generations where younger generations are leaving the house to
(10:16):
go to essential work trains. Grassroots advocacy work, and life
with her mother gave her an up close understanding of
the barrier space by the Asian American community. A major
(10:36):
barrier right at the start was just even being included
as a priority. But then later on once they were
included and eligible for vaccination, you know, you have a
system that presumes access to technology and transportation and primary
fluency in English, so people do who do not have
(10:59):
those advantages. We saw really immediately as soon as the
rollout happened, had a much harder time, if not were
completely shut out from being able to make appointments for vaccines.
In one instance, Training was visiting Seattle's first high capacity
(11:20):
vaccination center as part of her advocacy work. She saw
an elderly Vietnamese woman waiting in line and approached her
to make sure she understood the vaccination process. It turned
out there weren't adequate language services available, and then after
the point at which I joined her, we came upon
the third greet, which is the person that reads the
(11:41):
medical screening questions in English. There was no way she
would have understood those, or she potentially again could have
just been flagged through without accurately answering the medical questions
that are asked right in order to ensure you can
be safe getting the shot. And then we got to
the vaccination table itself, they couldn't find her in the system,
(12:04):
and they called in a couple of other volunteers. They
sent us to a special assistance table where another volunteer
tried to find her and still couldn't find her. At
that point, they were like five different people helping her
um and asking the same medical screening questions were actually
asked three different times. And then at one point she
started to wonder if she had done something wrong, you know,
(12:28):
with all this kind of commotion. It led to me
writing a letter to the mayor the following Monday. It
was on a Saturday, and others in our community collective
chiming in to amplify and also share concern, and to
their credit, the city's lead department UM in charge of
operations here was very responsive. We met with them and
(12:52):
then we had a tour with the Mayor's office in
the department a few days after that, and we've been
in contact since for ongoing and commit Now that Tray
and her mother have been fully vaccinated, Trang said she
is able to resume some of the care plans she
started pre COVID. Most of all, she is happy for
(13:13):
the peace of mind thinking about what the biggest sacrifices
were and what the biggest challenges were. One is I
have restarted efforts to find outside help. I don't have
anyone yet, but since we're vaccinated, that feels much safer,
(13:33):
and of course hopefully I'll find someone who they themselves
have been vaccinated too. And then there's just this huge
emotional relief because pre vaccination there is such a high
level of emotional stress, and so having it just provides
a huge measure of relief for my emotional stress, which
(13:54):
in turn helps me be a more centered and focused
and joyful caregiver. Since Training and her mother were vaccinated,
(14:15):
we've made strides and spreading the vaccine to more accessible locations,
but we should all still help the people we care
about book their appointments if they needed. To discuss how
important that is. We spoke with Dr Tongue when Professor
of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr
Wynn is also the director of the Asian American Research
(14:36):
Center on Health and the Dean's Diversity Leader at the
University of California, San Francisco. He also served on President
Barack Obama's Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders
for six years. Dr When discussed why COVID nineteen is
particularly troubling for folks living in multigenerational households, a special
(15:00):
like a A and h p I people who are
the most likely ethnic group to share a home with
extended relatives. This challenge, along with the disturbing uptick and
hate crimes targeted at the community, has made COVID nineteen
uniquely difficult for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders to address this.
(15:20):
Here is our conversation with Dr Tongue when with the
issues of multigenerational households and COVID nineteen and Asian Americans
in general, it's been a huge issue. The big thing
about Asian Americans, of course, many of them do live
in multigenerational households for various different reasons. One maybe economic,
(15:44):
another might be just cultural because we like to have
large families around, and it's been difficult because number one,
the more people who live in a home, there's a
more risk of infections and spreading infections. When someone gets it,
it is much harder to stay distance or isolated within
these households. It's important for everyone in a multigenerational house
(16:08):
where they get vaccinated, mainly because everyone should get vaccinated
for COVID nineteen. So that's probably the most important message
to get across. It is an incredibly effective vaccine all
of all of them, and so there is really no
reason not to get the vaccine for those who live
in multigenerational household it's important because the vaccine is not perfect.
(16:29):
So let's say, for example, we have older parents or
grandparents living in a household and they got vaccinated. Uh,
let's say with a very effective vaccine in the range,
there's a smaller chance that they can still get COVID.
So people living in the same home with them if
they get vaccinated and then which less likely to get
(16:50):
the infection and bring it home and give it to
their parents or grand parents for optimal protection. Obviously, we
do recommend that people do you know, maintain their wearing
their masks. But the more people who are vaccinated, the
less likely that the infection will get passed around. Though
it's important for everyone to get vaccinated. Dr When has
(17:11):
also seen the systemic barriers that may prevent a n
h PI folks from pursuing vaccines. Yeah, I do think
that n h p I people have a lot of
barriers in getting u the COVID nineteen vaccine. The first
really big issue is that we've relied on technology to
(17:34):
get information out about the vaccine and scheduling and getting
access to the vaccine. That means that those people who
have a digital divide have trouble dealing with that. And
that means I don't have a smartphone or tablet computer,
they don't have access to the internet or high speed internet.
And even when they do have all those things, the
places where they go on the web to sign up,
(17:56):
for example, to get information are not designed in a
way that's easy for them to use, for example, in
the same language, or easy for older people to use
things like that. And then there's also these issues around
fear of getting outside, So you fear going outside because
you may get COVID. Another fear is going outside and
being attacked with all the anti Asian hate and violence
(18:17):
that's going on. So there are all these barriers, and
in general, language I think is a big, big problem.
Train two's case shows that national and local governments are
listening to feedback and trying to improve the vaccine sign
up process. However, it will always be crucial for us
(18:41):
to also help the people in our lives get vaccinated,
especially if they're living with us. So the people who
are living with others who every trouble getting vaccination, the
first thing they have to do is make sure that
they are answering any relevant questions about the vaccine, getting
good information, and because there is still some vaccine hesitancy right,
(19:02):
so now there's you know, what we think about people
who aren't getting the vaccine. You start with do they
want it? Right? So you know, and oftentimes they may
they think they don't want it because they don't have
adequate information. They have misinformation about the vaccine. So you
hear about all this rumors and all sort of these
fears that are not necessarily founded on scientific or clinical facts.
And someone who lives with them, who understands more, have
(19:26):
access to more information, even in English, hopefully can get
that information to them in English or in the Native
Asian language so that they can at least make the
right decision to get the vaccine or not for themselves.
The second thing is, of course, you know, we we
emphasize logistical support. Again. Once a person decides they want
to get the vaccine, they are all these barriers that
(19:48):
I mentioned, and so can we help them make the appointment,
so they need a little bit of hand holding, I think,
at least with the younger people who are more tech savvy,
to help them make the appointment when it doesn't happen
the first time. I think. Another is to work with
community organizations actually know how to work Redision American Native
Hawaiians on their communities and helped have them help you
(20:11):
or whichever agency that's living the vaccine to actually go
out and create materials, create uh, you know, even having
friends and employees helping them get to the vaccine get
to the vaccine. I have to say that, you know,
in my own clinical setting, I had a few months
ago when the limit was just for those who are
(20:35):
six or five and older. So I looked at all
my patients voice six in order who didn't get the
vaccine yet and almost all of them were Asians and
older who didn't speak English. And you know, I asked
the question of why why is that? And again I
already talked a little bit about the technology barriers and
the language barriers. They got a lot better once our
staff started making phone calls in language. With hate crimes
(20:58):
against Asian Americans put to the forefront amid the pandemic,
fear of racism presents yet another barrier for the community.
I do think racism and prejudice play into a lot
of the issues that Asian American and even Win has
been encountering during the COVID pandemic. As someone who's actually
been doing this work with these communities for about twenty
(21:20):
years now, I've been very loud and vocal about the
underlying structural issues that deny these communities access to the
services they need and paid for, by the way, because
we pay taxes to these communities are underserved, underserved in
terms of both what they need in terms of their
(21:40):
their numbers in the populations. Right, So I want to
start with that conversation first, because we talk a about
an individual hate, right, If we're talking about these individuals
who go out and you know, spit on people and
push people and shoot people, and those are very important things, right,
But one thing that we should recognize the COVID pandemic
is individual deaths from isolated events are small. Millions are
(22:05):
dying from COVID, right, So, so these kind of structural
problems are affecting people beyond COVID. They affect them in diabetes,
I affect them in cancer. You know, people are dying
from these kinds of racism and prejudice, and I do
want us to address those in our systems. People are
afraid to go out. Right, So from the moment when
(22:26):
when the leader of this country said it's the Chinese
Chinese flu over it is, it put a target on
everybody's back and they were afraid to go out. And
as a physician early on, actually I was saying, oh no, no, no,
you still got to come in and get tested if
you think you have a problem. This is before the
vaccination days, right, And they're like, I'm afraid to go out.
And now I think they were justified because when they
(22:48):
go out, they get put You know, these older Asians
are getting pushed down on the street and then get
and spat on. So how that's a real fear and
it's validated. It's not just oh I'm afraid and therefore
I'm not gonna get tested. So so so I do
think that that's been a real problem. Now that everyone
(23:09):
is eligible to sign up for a vaccine, it remains
crucial to help relatives and friends who need it book
their appointments, while the systems improve around us to make
the process easier. The take home message I think is
that we want everyone to get vaccinated. Right So, obviously,
as an Asian American, I want Alwaysian Mecan vaccinated, but
(23:29):
even a non Asian American person should want always your
Magicans to get vaccinated. Because again, the more people vaccinated,
sooner we can get back to life as normal as
it can be posed the pandemic. Right, So, so it's
important to all of us to make sure all of
us get vaccinated. So so that's starting with that, though,
I think then the question becomes, well, how can we
(23:50):
help address these barrier So, for example, if you're an
Asian American person and you're trying to get the vaccine
and you can't get it for whatever reasons, uh that
that you and counter you should report it. One of
the reasons why this whole anti Asian hate thing has
really captured everyone's imagination, besides the actual events themselves, that
(24:11):
back in March or some Asian American researchers decide to
collect data on these Asian hate incidents. So as soon
as this people start paying attention to it now they say, well, oh,
look this data has been collected. Look it's real. It's
not just like one person telling you this or the
two people telling you this. It's been collected for a year.
We want the same approach with sort of the racism
(24:32):
that's related to not giving people language access to the vaccine.
So there's this website that we uh people at Asian
American Research and around health. Asian health services and app
show are created call Asian m Voices dot org, so
it's Asian am Voices dot org. And the purpose of
the website is to do what's stop Asian Hate did
(24:56):
for anti Asian incidents, which is enable people to port
barriers and problems that I had in trying to get
the COVID vaccine. The website is actually available in multiple
engine languages I think ten now to day, and as
well as English, so that people can go there and say, well,
I try to get the vaccine, but I rando this
problem because they wouldn't serve me because I don't speak English,
(25:19):
for example. And this way we'll be able to track
how often this is happening. Hopefully by finding out where
it's happening, we can give feedback to those organizations and
places and say, hey, your your patients are having trouble.
Can you do something about it? Right, so we can
try to help solve some of these problems. So people
who are just doing their very best to get the
(25:40):
vaccine and not able to get it at least have
a way to troubleshoot it with systems trained you and
Dr Tongue when both address how crucial it is for everyone,
(26:04):
everyone in multigenerational households to get vaccinated, not just older
A A n h p I people. Your health is
deeply interconnected with the health of your household and your community.
Now that everyone is eligible, you can finally get some
peace of mind by helping the people you love sign
up for a vaccine and booking an appointment for yourself
(26:25):
to Like Training two's grassroots collective, we can all work
together to ensure the people who need these vaccines the
most can get access. To get vaccinated, go to CDC
dot gov slash coronavirus and scroll down to the middle
(26:47):
of the page to click on the word vaccines. From there,
click on vaccine Finder, and the site will help you
determine where you can get the vaccine and how to
make an appointment. Now you don't have to worry about
paying for your vaccine. Your taxpayer dollars are funding the rollout,
so there's no individual cost to you. So if someone
(27:10):
asks you to provide your insurance information, that's only so
your vaccination provider can build your insurance for the administrative costs,
but you will not be personally responsible for any expenses.
I'd like to thank our guests Trained to and Dr
Tongue Wed for sharing their thoughts and their expertise with
us today. Hope you go to tune in again for
(27:31):
episode five and which we'll talk about the importance of
being a health decision maker and caregiver for family, friends,
and loved ones, and how community health care navigators can
serve as trusted messengers for the people we care about.
(27:55):
COVID nineteen immunity in our community was developed and paid
for by the US to Apartment of Health and Human Services,
part of a public education campaign to increase public confidence
in COVID nineteen vaccines while reinforcing basic prevention measures. We
Can Do This presented by I Heart Radio and ABC News.
(28:16):
This podcast is hosted by me Robin Roberts. The episode
was executive produced Ethan Fixal with production by Wonder Media Network.
It was written, engineered, and edited by Edie Aller to
Triple Threat, with research assistance from Alessandra Tata. If you
(28:37):
haven't already subscribed, rated, or reviewed COVID nineteen immunity in
our community, what are you waiting for? Please do so
on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you get your podcasts until next week. I am Robin
Roberts and this is COVID nineteen immunity in our community.
(28:58):
We could do this. Thank for listening.
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