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Community coming together to dispel myths, get kids vaccinated in Wimauma

There’s still reluctance among some Hispanic parents in this farming community, but they’re seeing that the benefits outweigh the risks.
 
Maria Rescalvo, 42, comforts son Jesus, 7, after he receives a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine during a vaccination event Nov. 14 hosted by Enterprising Latinas in Wimauma.
Maria Rescalvo, 42, comforts son Jesus, 7, after he receives a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine during a vaccination event Nov. 14 hosted by Enterprising Latinas in Wimauma. [ Times ]
Published Nov. 29, 2021

WIMAUMA — Maria Rescalvo, a 42-year-old mother of five, remembers the cough and the fever, the muscle ache and fatigue once she fell ill with COVID-19 a year ago.

Her oldest daughters — Amalia, 21, and Victoria, 19 — came down with the virus at the same time.

“We were very scared,” said Rescalvo, who was born in Mexico. “It was a bad experience for the whole family.”

Her three youngest children, ages 7 to 10, have avoided COVID-19 so far, and now, thanks to a community event in Wimauma, they stand a better chance of remaining virus-free.

The Rescalvos joined some 110 families on a recent Sunday in the largely Hispanic south Hillsborough County farming community to get vaccinated at an event organized by the nonprofit Enterprising Latinas. The group was established to “create pathways of opportunity” for Latinas in Tampa Bay and saw a need to act, now that vaccinations are recommended for children 5 and older.

Just as important as the vaccinations, though, organizers spent time beforehand debunking myths — like the notion that it’s better to wait and see the vaccine’s long-term effects across society before getting your children the shot.

Even though she had felt the pain of COVID-19, Rescalvo had some doubts of her own about the vaccine. Rescalvo, who works at a plant nursery in Wimauma, finally was persuaded by a close friend that the vaccine is safe and effective against the delta variant.

Rescalvo received her shot in May. A month later, her older daughters did, too. As soon as she learned it would be available at this month’s event to her three youngest children — Jesus, 7, Jessica, 8, and Margarita, 10 — she decided to take them in.

Mexican Iris Angeles, 40, who attended the event with daughters Eileen, 9, and Crystal, 12, said she wanted her children to be vaccinated “right away.” Angeles had COVID last year, along with her husband, Magdaleno, 41, and his parents, Jose, 73, and Herminia, 73.

Crystal Jimenez, 12, receives a COVID-19 vaccine dose from phlebotomist Yoelib Rodriguez during a vaccination event Nov. 14 at the Wimauma Opportunity Center. [ IVY CEBALLO | Times ]

“We cannot continue taking risks,” Angeles said. “Time can be in your favor, but it can also be against you.”

Florida has 1.7 million children 5 to 11 and about 6.8 percent of them got a first dose in the first three weeks of vaccine eligibility. Now, 68 percent of Floridians 5 and up have received at least one dose.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not report vaccination data for children by race and ethnicity. Only a handful of states do, and Florida is not one of them. More than 6.3 million children in the United States have tested positive for COVID, the American Academy of Pediatrics said.

Some Hispanic parents are reluctant to have their children vaccinated, said Ileana Cintron, deputy director of Enterprising Latinas. Her group works to show them that the benefits outweigh the risks.

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“You really don’t want your child to be one who gets severely ill and suffers long-term effects when it is totally preventable,” Cintron said.

Another vaccination event is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Dec. 11 at the Wimauma Opportunity Center, 5128 State Road 674.

“This is about giving our children that hope, that chance to grow up healthy and protected from the worst of COVID,” Cintron said.

Two months ago, Enterprising Latinas surveyed 100 families in Wimauma on attitudes toward the COVID-19 vaccine. Among the results: 75 percent of adults said they had been vaccinated and more than half planned to get their children the shot. Thirty percent said they planned to wait to have their children vaccinated and 18 percent said they saw no value in getting their children the vaccine.

Cintron hosted a Facebook Live vaccination discussion Nov. 9 with Dr. Kevin Sneed, founding dean of the University of South Florida College of Pharmacy. The discussion drew 192 views and was organized through the WE Care Coalition at USF, partner in many local pandemic information sessions.

“If you choose to get your child vaccinated or you choose to be vaccinated, we feel that you will have a greater level of protection,” Sneed said. “But for people that either choose to wait or just decide not to do it, we do feel that the virus will eventually find them. And then they are going to be at risk.”

Overcoming vaccine reluctance among Hispanics requires coming together as a community, said Bruce Lesley, president of First Focus on Children, a Washington-based child and family advocacy group.

In El Paso, Texas, for example, 18,000 children 5-11 have already been vaccinated against COVID-19 thanks to a partnership among health care leaders and local community organizations, Lesley said. Just a year ago, El Paso had one of the nation’s highest COVID-19 death rates.

“When the communities come together, many good things can happen,” Lesley said. “That is happening with mass vaccination of kids, too, which is good news.”

A particular challenge in many Hispanic families is that they don’t have health insurance to pay for the vaccine, said Carrie Fitzgerald, vice president of children’s health programs with First Focus on Children. Among all U.S. children, nearly 4.3 million or 5.6 percent have no insurance, according to the Census. That’s a 7 percent increase over 2019.

Among Hispanic children, the figure is 9.5 percent and among Black children, 6 percent. Uninsured families often don’t have access to pediatricians.

“When the children are uninsured — and we know that Hispanic children have the highest rate of uninsured in this country — they are already missing the most accurate information from someone they can trust,” Fitzgerald said.

Parents Rob Javier, 35, and Marivel Javier, 45, learned what they needed to know and brought their children — Christalee, 7, and Christian, 8 — to the Wimauma event.

The Javier family got their kids vaccinated Nov. 14 at an event in Wimauma. From left, Marivel, 45, Rob, 35, Christalee, 7, and Christian, 8. It didn't hurt too bad, the children said. [ Times ]

It was a relief to the family, Rob Javier said. His daughter fell sick with COVID-19 earlier this year and experienced complications, requiring that she be hospitalized for several days.

“We don’t want to go through that again,” he said. “It was horrible.”

The children didn’t mind the shot too much. Children receive a third of the volume of vaccine as adults do, with kid-sized needles and a three-week wait between first and second doses.

“It was so fast,” young Christian said.

“It just felt like pulling one of these hairs out,” said sister Christalee, grabbing a hair on her arm. “Easier than that.”

Staff writer Ivy Ceballo contributed to this report.