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On Monday, US Vice President Kamala Harris announced that the Biden administration will invest $250 million in federal funding. An official at the Health and Human Services Department (HHS) said it will be used for community organizations working to address gaps in the response to COVID-19. Harris will announce the funding in remarks to the National League of Cities. The funding plan is targeted at organizations that are encouraging underserved and minority populations to get COVID-19 vaccinations and adopt safety practices to help them avoid contracting the virus. The initiative is called Advancing Health Literacy to Enhance Equitable Community Responses to COVID-19 and will be run by HHS’ Office of Minority Health. The office will provide grants to localities partnering with community-based organizations.

The HHS official also said the plan is intended to help local governments empower their efforts around COVID-19 testing, contact tracing, and other mitigation measures while partnering with organizations that best know how to support their communities. Harris is expected to encourage the members of the National League of Cities. It is an organization consisting of thousands of cities, towns, and village leaders to embrace the plan. Point to be noted that Harris has already been trying to decrease vaccination disparities arising from racial, cultural, and socioeconomic concerns. Some of them are caused by mistrust of the vaccine among minorities and rural Americans alike. Harris received her first dose of the Moderna vaccine in December at United Medical Center in Southeast Washington, D.C.

The United Medical Center is a hospital providing services to mostly Black residents in the D.C area with lower median incomes. It is noteworthy that Harris introduced the COVID-19 Racial and Ethnic Disparities Task Force Act of 2020 when she was still a California senator. Harris said in February at a virtual roundtable, she said, “Our communities are dying at disproportionately high rates. We’ve got to remind people that the vaccines are safe, that they will save lives”. The Kaiser Family Foundation’s latest data shows the vaccination rate among White Americans was over 2.5 times higher across 35 states than the rate for Hispanic people, nearly twice as high as the rate for Black people. The CDC said last week that at least 55 million Americans have received one or more vaccine doses.