Vaccinations Are Still Important for the Homeless: Covid, MPOX Virus, and Flu
This includes the Unroofed Migrants in Chicago
Adult homeless persons in Chicago—including the migrants—still need to focus on getting the three vaccines above. If you are out there helping the unhoused, you need to review the current news about the above three battles and provide information in a clear way to persons who do not have a home.
There are many resources available from the city and from other sources. A quick “google” can provide a lifetime of news to read about. Professional organizations, the State of Illinois, and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) all have both basic and specific information available to you. This includes the CDC recommendations on vaccinations for both adults and children (https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/index.html).
As StreetSense suggested in August of 2023:
“Helpers should attempt to discover whether the people they are assisting have been vaccinated—if they plan to get vaccinated—and if they need help locating these services and related health and safety components. Taking the time to follow up is important, also, when dealing with agency staff persons and medical providers to help get migrants and other homeless persons vaccinated and saved from the COVID-19 machine. It is important, also, to get all the helpers, healthcare providers, researchers, educators, and community health exerts moving in the same direction, cooperating” (https://streetsense.substack.com/p/vaccinations-needed-for-migrants).
The COVID vaccinations should include the most recent and most powerful one available. Older varieties are a start in the battle against the virus, but they are only that. COVID is known to mutate. There is more than one “kind” of COVID out there. All adults need to keep an eye on the situation. If in doubt, consult medical professionals.
StreetSense was successful in getting many (we do not have the exact data) homeless persons vaccinated during the period when the city was coming to private homes and administering the vaccine. The city was giving the vaccine for up to ten persons at each address participating. It did not matter whether persons in the home for the vaccine were family members a lot.
Our thanks go out to the generous and kind persons who opened their homes to the total strangers who came in and got vaccinated. There are great rewards for all of you later.
The MPOX Virus vaccine is necessary for all adults having intimate relations with other adults. This means all adults, of course. Men who have sex with men is one group that needs the vaccine—and qualifies for it at clinics but men who are having casual sex with women they do not know must also seek the vaccine. There is no way of knowing about a person’s other sex partners. Women are still contracting MPOX as evident from the news.
MPOX has been controlled pretty well. But as the saying goes, “It only takes once.”
The darn flu is still around and there is thankfully a “senior” super version of the vaccine available. This is very important. The CDC recommends the high-octane shots for persons 65 and older. They have many materials available to help explain the various types of vaccines, what they do, and what they do NOT do (https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pdf/freeresources/seniors/seniors-vaccination-factsheet-final.pdf) .
For example, flu shots do not cause the flu… the shots do not make you immune forever—so you must get a shot annually.
Many of the above vaccines are available at low cost or even FREE of charge. Continue to check with others in your networks to find out where to go for vaccination and for other resources.
One such helpful resource is the clinic program at the Center on Halsted (https://www.centeronhalsted.org/). Vaccination is offered in two locations—north and south sides. They post info on the vaccines for all three--Covid, MPOX Virus, and Flu—on a regular basis. Vaccines are FREE to individuals with a Chicago I.D.
Further, Center on Halsted has HIV and STD services available (https://www.centeronhalsted.org/HIV.html). Important to note is that the services are available in Spanish! That is the language spoken by most of the migrants, since they have arrived here from Colombia and Venezuela.
As we said before:
“The migrants are in luck in one way: there are over 1.5 million speakers of Spanish in the greater Chicagoland region. This should facilitate communication about the vaccinations, behaviors, and needs of the migrants from those countries” (https://stacker.com/illinois/chicago/most-common-languages-spoken-home-greater-chicago-and-surrounding-regions).”
One particular group of people hard to work with is the “vaccination deniers” and other uninformed persons. Some of these people repeat stories like “Three of my best friends died from the COVID vaccine…” and other sad tales. If that person has access to data like that, perhaps they should be writing for the public.
It is always difficult to deal with people who will not—or cannot—discuss topics reasonably like educated adults. Breathing a lot of fresh air or drinking bottled water in themselves are NOT enough to cure COVID or avoid it in the first place. As always, we must consider what makes sense and do our work accordingly.
All of us coming at the solutions to homeless health and social issues from different angles—from education, community advocacy, social work, and counseling—can continue to work together to help. Unroofed persons with no keys, no shelter, no showers, and sometimes no hope, can and should find assistance. We are each one piece of the puzzle, we insist.
We are each one piece of the puzzle.