'Our hands are tied': Clinics forced to wait to vaccinate farmworkers [View all]

[turbinetree]

By Associated Press -March 13, 2021 10:00 AM

'We are in the fields getting the work done to feed all the families.'

With Georgia's sweet onion harvest approaching and COVID-19 vaccine arriving in increasing quantities from the federal government, migrant health centers around the state want to start vaccinating farmworkers. But there's a catch.

In Georgia and many other places around the United States, such efforts are blocked by state policies that give priority for shots to other groups.

"Our hands are tied," said East Georgia Healthcare Center CEO Jennie Wren Denmark, whose agency runs 13 clinics, including one in Vidalia, home of the celebrated Vidalia onion. Her clinics' vaccine will instead go to patients on the state eligibility list, which was expanded this week to teachers.

https://americanindependent.com/covid-vaccine-pandemic-farmworkers-florida-california-washington/