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INTRODUCTION
Helpers and the wide range of other professionals and grassroots individuals out there who try to assist the migrants and other homeless in Chicago need to keep thinking about an important topic: vaccinations. Vaccines for COVID-19, influenza, and MPOX virus are all important topics for us to work on and work with as we endeavor to help the unhoused Chicago residents. These may be individuals from Edgewater or Maracaibo… living among us and with us… all needing resources to survive and not succumb to illness.
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A. COVID-19
The majority of migrants from Venezuela, Colombia, and other countries do not seem to be vaccinated against COVID-19 and are not sure where to go to get the vaccine. This, despite a barrage of information they are reportedly receiving from the City of Chicago staff members helping them. In the various communities where the migrants are currently being housed, both helpers on the street and professionals are asking about plans to get the migrants vaccinated ASAP.
What is happening with COVID-19 in Chicago? According to the news, COVID is “creeping back up again” and the first week of August saw this sort of “slight increase:” “the Chicago Department of Public Health reported 72 laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases for the week ending Aug. 9, a 4% increase from the previous week.” Cases are currently “creeping up” to use the words from the title of a recent article (Mitchell Armentrout, August 13, 2023, “No surge, but still ‘jarring’: COVID-19 cases creeping up in Chicago,” Chicago Sun Times, August 13, 2023, https://chicago.suntimes.com/coronavirus/2023/8/13/23829073/covid-increase-chicago-illinois-cases).
Helpers of the homeless and the migrants need to pay attention. We are all being reminded in that same article that even the slowly rising figures are telling us that COVID is still very much alive and looking for host bodies in which it can reap its destruction. Remember that COVID is very effective at destroying and killing—that is its job.
Helpers should be on the lookout for signs of infection in additional individuals seeking assistance for food, housing, work opportunities, and locating other resources…
COVID-19 is attracted to vulnerable persons—especially those with little or no healthcare plans or insurance, no primary doctor, difficulty locating physicians, food, shelter, and safety, plus other basic resources that indoor-dwelling Chicago residents take for granted.
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.
The very slow increase—such as that during the first week of August-- “serves as a reminder that the virus still packs a devastating punch for vulnerable communities.”
There is a great deal of education to be done out there, for all unhoused populations—not just the new migrants. Chicago has approximately 68,000 homeless persons (https://www.chicagohomeless.org/estimate-of-homeless-people-in-chicago/). At least that was one of the common estimates used out there for 2021 (data is always a year or two behind, depending on whose numbers you are citing). That is a big number of people who 1) need vaccination for COVID-19 and other illnesses; 2) need reminders about covering their mouths when they sneeze and cough; 3) need to avoid large groups such as at parties and funerals; 4) need to wear masks in tightly confined situations such as bus, train, and taxi trips, and 5) teach their children and persons among them with developmental disabilities about covering their mouths when they sneeze and cough.
COVID-19 is still with us in Chicago. Trying to find out whether new populations among us—and the unhoused who were already here living dangerously—have been vaccinated for COVID-19 or not is a challenge for helpers, counselors, social service agency personnel, and grassroots organizers in our city.
Helpers should also consider whether there has been vaccination for: Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria, and whooping cough) and related (https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/adults/rec-vac/index.html) in addition to measles, mumps, rubella, papillomavirus, hepatitis A and B, and others (https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/schedules/hcp/imz/adult.html) Healthcare professionals can provide more specific guidelines and also schedules for vaccination for persons of various ages—in addition to persons at risk of certain diseases because of proximity to individuals suffering from illnesses that can be prevented by vaccination.
Always consult with healthcare professionals regarding technical information and vaccination recommendations. The role of counselors and helpers is always to get the unhoused—migrant or not—to the persons qualified to provide healthcare and other services…
Serving in a “street” capacity is a hands-on experience that is very helpful in the process of getting information to our vulnerable populations.
Services for COVD-19 in Illinois can be accessed in an emergency from this source: (https://www.dhs.state.il.us/page.aspx?item=124373).
We will soon know if there will be an explosion of cases of COVID-19 among non-vaccinated unhoused persons in Chicago—especially among the migrants.
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B. Flu
The famous flu is yet another major concern for persons from vulnerable populations. Overall, the risk of influenza is currently very low. Of specimens tested this last week, only eight of 3,589 were positive. This is encouraging. (https://www.chicago.gov/content/dam/city/depts/cdph/H1N1_swine_flu/FluUpdate/2023/Influenza-and-Respiratory-Virus-Surveillance-Report-Week-36_09.15.2023.pdf).
The flu and COVID-19 are caused by different viruses. It is hard to tell the difference between them with closer inspection. There are some major differences, however.
In comparison with COVID-19, the flu has been less contagious, for one thing, according to the CDC. From what we know, COVID-19 spreads more easily than flu. Efforts to maximize the proportion of people in the United States who are up to date with their COVID-19 vaccines remain critical to reducing the risk of severe COVID-19 illness and death. Compared with flu, COVID-19 can cause more severe illness in some people. Compared to people with flu, people infected with COVID-19 may take longer to show symptoms and may be contagious for longer periods of time (https://www.cdc.gov/flu/symptoms/flu-vs-covid19.htm).
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C. MPOX
MPOX vaccination is essential for all sexually active adults, male and female, married and single. This is true for all responsible adults—American or unhoused or migrant or visiting. If the adults are sexually active, in “monogamous relationships” or not, it is best for them to be vaccinated…
Woman infected with MPOX virus
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While many, many people will argue about trust and monogamy, avoiding MPOX infection is a strong motive.
MPOX infection among women is a steadily growing problem—as we knew it would come to be—and it is highest among women of Black and latino communities (https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/72/wr/mm7215a4.htm). Migrants from Colombia and Venezuela, for example, would show a high incidence of both Black and latino ancestry.
MPOX among women is growing in communities in which downlow men are having sex with both their wives and girlfriends and other men who have sex with men, with women of Black and latino communities showing the highest rates of infection with MPOX among females (https://news.yahoo.com/mpox-cases-among-women-mostly-191336627.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall).
Helpers need to consider these realities in dealing with men and women regarding MPOX vaccination and treatment, both for migrants and non-migrant unhoused Chicago residents.
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CONCLUSION
Major challenges remain out there. In a city as large as Chicago, it can be very frustrating that there are so many agencies and departments, news sources, and coalitions. Navigating all of the different “silos” is difficult for us helpers. It probably seems insurmountable to persons who barely speak the language and who have to learn about vaccinations quickly.
Working to get medical records from some systems in some regions and some countries could turn out to be a big problem, indeed. Information about vaccinations for polio, chickenpox, and many, many other illnesses would be very helpful to get access to.
A major difficulty with the migrants being unvaccinated—and their children attending schools without medical records or vaccination—is that the situation is not being met head-on, quickly enough.
One big complaint from parents of children in the schools is that letting the migrants’ children into classes without medical records—including proof of COVID-19 vaccination—is unfair. After all the COVID-19 rules in the schools, parents argue, now the migrant children are being allowed to enter classes with no records at all, seemingly. This brings illness directly into the classroom (https://www.foxnews.com/media/parents-infuriated-migrants-enroll-chicago-schools-without-health-records-years-covid-rules).
It seems as though we street helpers are involved in yet another call-to-action.
Migrants need vaccinations, COVID-19 testing, and a great deal of education about the current infections, dangers, and services…
Helpers from all arenas—including healthcare professionals are faced now with the challenges of assisting not only the 60 plus thousand unroofed dwellers in Chicago but also an additional 10,000 or so migrants from South America and other regions.
In Venezuela alone, since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, there have been over 550,000 cases and almost 6,000 deaths (https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/region/venezuela). In Colombia, there have been over 6,000,000 cases and over 140,000 deaths (https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/region/colombia).
While many people from both countries have received at least one vaccination, there is the challenge still of finding out whether the migrants in Chicago have received the vaccine, how many times, and whether they have gotten the booster shot.
The brand new boosters are available now, and more news will be coming down from abo ve… the FDA having signed off on them and now the CDC dues to approve them for use for anyone 5 years of age or older (https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/fda-clears-new-covid-boosters-5-things-know-rcna102577). Migrants—and all persons—may get the new booster whether they have received previous shots or not, apparently.
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 (https://stacker.com/illinois/chicago/most-common-languages-spoken-home-greater-chicago-and-surrounding-regions).
Working together, all of us from different walks of life can assist by helping with better quality of life, better health, more safety, and we would hope continue to save some lives among the unhoused—migrants or not.