Shared from the 3/14/2021 Houston Chronicle eEdition

Vietnamese community gets shot at recovering from COVID

Medical association, groups give hundreds of vaccine doses to seniors in the Alief area

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Elizabeth Conley / Staff photographer

Nhuan Le gets his shot Saturday from a Texas Woman’s University nursing student during a drive-thru vaccination site hosted by the Vietnamese Culture and Science Association and the Vietnamese American Medical Association in Houston.

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Photos by Elizabeth Conley / Staff photographer

Nurse practitioner Hai Dong talks to Texas Woman’s University nursing students Saturday about administering the vaccines during a drive-thru site hosted by the Vietnamese Culture and Science Association and the Vietnamese American Medical Association.

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Nguyet Thomson, 90, got her COVID-19 vaccine Saturday at a drive-thru vaccination site in Houston.

Internal medicine specialist Dr. Tram Ho has seen COVID-19 claim more than a dozen lives at her clinic over the last year.

That devastation made the Houston doctor intent on getting the vaccine out as quickly as possible to combat the pandemic’s toll on her community. On Saturday, Ho and other doctors registered hundreds of older Vietnamese Americans for a vaccine distribution event in the Alief area — a laborious effort that involved overcoming language and technology obstacles by calling patients, speaking in their native language and printing out multilingual paperwork.

“We want to get as many people vaccinated as possible,” Ho said. “We maximize every drop.”

The event, hosted by the Vietnamese American Medical Association and other community groups, was run by a group of volunteers working to serve their community. The city of Houston Health Department supplied 500 doses of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

“Community means leaving no one behind,” said Alex Le, a public health student and community leader. “We just want to make sure everyone has an equal opportunity (to get vaccinated).”

Saturday’s event is the city’s second vaccination clinic in the Alief area, said Dr. Kathy Flanagan, chair of the medical care subcommittee on Mayor Sylvester Turner’s health equity response task force. The city distributed roughly 2,500 vaccines on Saturday between three separate sites, she said.

“We are excited that we are able to serve the Vietnamese community,” Flanagan said, adding that community leaders are instrumental in building trust into the vaccine distribution process.

Starting at 8 a.m., cars entered the parking lot of Lien Hoa Temple, a Buddhist temple on Sugarland Howell Road, where volunteers distributed registration paperwork in Vietnamese and English.

Behind the building, drivers stopped for their shots at one of three stations staffed by clinical nurses, nurse practitioners and nursing students from Texas Women’s University. Afterward, patients waited 15 minutes to monitor for adverse reactions.

“It’s always great to be part of something bigger than yourself,” said Michael Pham, president of the Vietnamese American Nursing Association, whose members staffed the clinic. “The more people we vaccinate, the better.”

Teresa Trinh, president of the Vietnamese Culture and Science Association, said she was proud to be part of the event. Her organization, founded in 1990, provided volunteers to help direct traffic, enter data and coordinate logistics at the clinic.

Members of the organization have also created a community waitlist for people seeking the vaccine. Late each night, Trinh and other volunteers comb through Walgreens, CVS or other vaccine provider websites and snag appointments for people on the waitlist. Many are older Vietnamese Americans who face hurdles like internet and technology challenges and a language barrier, she said.

The group’s flyers, written in English and Vietnamese, offer a phone number, email and link to sign up for the waitlist with the message: “Have you had trouble getting a COVID-19 vaccine? Are you older than 50 years old? (We) can help you schedule an appointment!”

The small team of “vaccine hunters” have made appointments for more than 700 people to date, Trinh said.

“(We) decided we had to do something — we knew our community was under-served,” she said. “It’s very much a grassroots effort for us in the Vietnamese community.”

On Saturday morning, Tuyen Le and her father, 82-year-old Nhuan Le rolled up their sleeves to receive the vaccine while sitting in their car.

Le said being vaccinated will make her feel more confident when interacting with friends or coworkers. Although fear and uncertainty persist in the community due to confusing or contradictory information, Le said she trusts the vaccine enough to get the shot after a stressful and tiring year.

“I feel like we lost everything in just one year,” she said. “We want to have normal life come back.” anna.bauman@chron.com

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