When Gladys Vega heard that Chelsea was no longer designated a COVID-19 red zone, according to state metrics, she had mixed emotions.
On one hand, she said, she was happy to see the infection rate go down. But on the other, she worried that it could lead to people being complacent.
“Because it means that people get too laid back," said Vega, who runs the Chelsea based nonprofit La Colaborativa. "It means that spring parties are coming and people are gathering with their loved ones. It means that we're going to sort of let the guard down. We don't have the luxury to do that."
That's because even though COVID-19 cases are dropping in Chelsea, once the state’s coronavirus epicenter, the city still has high rates relative to the size of its population. Most of Chelsea’s residents work long hours in service industries, and Vega worries that many of them don’t have a computer or have time to sit on the phone waiting to book an appointment — or even the time to spend getting the vaccination itself. And, she said, she worries that many residents don’t trust the vaccine anyway. Her organization’s volunteers are knocking on doors in Chelsea’s neighborhoods, giving out information about how to get vaccines and trying to dispel myths.
East Boston Neighborhood Health Center CEO Manny Lopes said that “getting people to trust the science” of the vaccine is a big problem. His organization formed a partnership with La Colaborativa to set up a vaccine clinic in downtown Chelsea with city and state backing. It’s a sign of hard-won progress, but Lopes said there’s still a lot of work ahead.
“Building confidence in getting the vaccine, and particularly those that are on the fence or those that are hard noes, I think that's where we're going to be putting a lot of our time and effort,” Lopes said. “And that's what we as a city, as a state, as a nation … need to continue to work on.”
For the full story, click the audio or video player above.
