Marcella Nunez-Smith

“ You know, in our country there are more than 1,300 community health centers spanning every U.S. state and territory, and serving over 30 million people. Two thirds of their patients live at or below the federal poverty line, and 60 percent of patients at community health centers identify as racial or ethnic minorities.
So, in addition to the doses that have already been allocated to states and then additionally through the pharmacy program, we will begin shipping doses directly to these community health centers. We will be starting with a phased approach and will ramp up over time. ”

“ So the tools that we are deploying at the federal level are meant to aid state and local leaders, but are in no way a substitute for the important work that they must lead on the ground to address equity. ”

“ We need Congress to quickly pass the American Rescue Plan to provide the funding we need to continue to scale up our vaccination program and to deliver the resources that state and local leaders need to protect their communities and fight the pandemic. ”

“ You know, as we select the participating FQHCs, CDC and HRSA is working very hard on those selection criteria, in particular identifying those FQHCs or community health centers who have a significant number of patients who experience homelessness, for example, for example; who are agricultural migrant workers ”

“ So, as you just heard, we are very excited to be partnering with federally-qualified health centers, also known as community health centers. They do provide really substantial primary care services across many underserved areas. ”

“ So some of those special populations.The Federally Qualified Health Centers also in our initial ramp-up really are ones that serve more than 2,000 individuals 65 and older and have large population size — so, really, ones that are able to handle, kind of, the increased capacity, particularly around the vaccine storage and staffing, and with a mix of urban and rural. ”

“ It’s an interesting hub-and-spoke model, where these centers are located near underserved, hardest-hit communities, but we also are using mobile units in each of those centers to go directly to the communities.So I think this hub-and-spoke model might also be a best practice for other centers across the country to ensure that we’re reaching the hardest-hit communities. ”

“ Before we close, I also want to announce that as part of our national strategy this month, the CDC will convene a national forum on COVID vaccines. The forum will bring together practitioners from national, state, tribal, local, and territorial levels who are engaged in vaccinating communities across the nation. ”