Housing and Vaccinations

Picture via KATV

By Maya Robin

The global issue of homelessness and the number of vaccines being distributed are heavily related. Personal economic status greatly impacts the ability to get vaccinated. And on a larger scale, a country’s economic standing and its influence in the global community also greatly affects the percentage of citizens that get vaccinated. Areas with large homeless populations must overcome more obstacles in distributing the necessary vaccinations; the higher the country’s GDP and cost of living, the more vaccines the country will be able to acquire. This leaves the people in impoverished countries in danger.

Los Angeles is widely known for its housing crisis. The homeless population is skyrocketing, and the average cost of living cannot be met by many. In Los Angeles County, the average monthly income is $6,818, while the average monthly rent is $2,361. To buy a home, the majority of Los Angeles residents would have to spend over 30% of their income. With such a large population of the city going homeless or impoverished, distributing vaccines is significantly more difficult. However, with over six-hundred vaccination sites throughout the county, 63.8% of people 16 years and older and 85.2% of people 65 years and older are now vaccinated with at least one dose.

            In London, most residents also have issues with home affordability. The average monthly income is $3,174, while the average monthly rent is $2,217. Despite this crisis, London has managed to vaccinate 95% of people over 50 years old. The UK’s vaccine rollout is very centralized, which makes vaccines more accessible to those who have financial trouble or cannot afford housing. While Londoners’ average monthly rent is around 70% of their monthly income, the high vaccination rate may be credited to the National Health Service as the singular distributor.

            In a country with high birth and high immigration rates, affordable housing in Tel Aviv continues to be scarce. The average income per month is $4,000, while the average rent is

$1,433. Many are left homeless or forced to leave Tel Aviv and move to more affordable cities in Israel. While this crisis is devastating, Israel has been a global example of how to deal with the coronavirus. Vaccines are distributed by the main health care and health insurance providers. Health insurance is accessible to all, even the homeless, making getting vaccinated attainable for all residents. With over 60% vaccinated, the country has begun to return to a “pre-corona” lifestyle. Residents without proof of vaccination are not allowed indoors at many venues and, therefore, the rates of spreading the virus have been significantly lowered.

            While Costa Rica is considered one of the safest countries in Central America, it is still a third world country due to the extreme poverty. There are 4.5 million Costa Ricans and, devastatingly, more than 52% live in poverty. The average monthly income is $750, and the monthly rent is approximately 66% of that, at $500. This level of poverty makes giving out and getting the vaccine increasingly difficult. As of now, the daily number of COVID-19 cases is in the thousands and only 12.8% of the population has been vaccinated.

            There is a clear correlation between the global status of a country and the number of citizens vaccinated to date. This is represented in society in that the socioeconomic status of a person can determine whether they have access to the vaccines.

https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus/country/costa-rica

Should Everyone Get Vaccinated

Work

We all know the story: Responsible Al who never misses a day comes into the office sneezing and coughing. We offer Al a cough drop and tissue paper, hold our noses and hope Al doesn’t make us sick. But he does. Later that night, we start to have the same cough and before you know it, we are debating if we are going to pull an Al and come to work the next day. Saturday is the day we must go and visit our mother-in-law in the nursing home….

School

We are always rushed in the morning, and our eight-year-old is complaining they are not feeling well. With the carpool, 9:00am meeting, and no one available for a last-minute baby-sitting favor, we are forced to send the child to school. Unknowing, in the carpool ride home, your child is with another youngster’s sibling who has an immune deficiency. With the windows rolled up and everyone singing the latest pop chorus jingle, soon everyone in the car has the infection.

Social

Another scenario: you are not feeling your greatest, but you promised a group of friends that this time you were not going to flake on drinks. You take a couple of Tylenols and an hour later, you are at the bar, hoping the gin and tonic will be an excuse for your red eyes. You are laughing and hugging, and by the end of the night, you feel one hundred but notice your friend now has that same sneeze you woke up with.

Sound familiar? Life happens all the time, but that does not make us bad parents, irresponsible co-workers, or a bad friend. What if this time, it is more than a cold? What if the bad cough, congestion, or fever are more than just a cold or the flu. What if in our post-2020 world, this is COVID or a new variant. Have we done the right thing by avoiding a vaccination? Yes, we are ok, but what about those around us who are not as lucky.

 In 2019, there were 22,000 reported deaths from the flu in the United States (CDC.GOV). In 2020, there were over 360,000 deaths due to COVID-19 the numbers tell the story of just how important this vaccination may be.  

by

Dane Flanigan

CEO ultraHealth Agency