Puerto Rico, parts of South America beat Florida on COVID vaccinations. Know why? | Editorial

Puerto Rico has succeeded where Florida has fallen short. The U.S. territory has fully vaccinated more than 72% of its residents against COVID, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — the highest percentage in the United States.

Florida, meanwhile, has fully vaccinated 58.9%.

Puerto Rico is reporting about 18 cases per 100,000 residents over a seven-day period, a “moderate” level. Compare that to Florida’s “substantial” community transmission rate of 79.5 cases per 100,000 residents over the same period.

How did Puerto Rico do it, while recovering from Hurricane Maria, more poverty and with fewer resources than places like Florida? Two main things, according to a Miami Herald story. Puerto Rico has had a history of aggressive vaccine campaigns. And the people there pretty much managed to keep politics out of it.

Mask-wearing and vaccinations weren’t politicized the way they have been in Florida and Texas. Mayors got on board. Hospitals vaccinated staff first, followed by teachers. Universities became vaccine hubs.

And — surprise, surprise — it worked.

Puerto Rico had access to the United States’ widely available vaccines — a luxury compared to the slow and often chaotic vaccine rollout in the rest of Latin America. Yet, in South America, some countries are surpassing the U.S. vaccine response.

In Chile and Uruguay, more than 70% of the population is fully vaccinated, according to the New York Times. In Argentina, where vaccines have been hard to come by, more than 61% of the population has received at least one shot. (In the U.S., about 66% of the population has gotten at least one shot.) Yes, these are small nations, but let’s look at Brazil, which has the second-largest coronavirus death toll in the world after the U.S.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has done everything to undermine vaccinations and trust in public health. He dismissed offers from manufacturers to buy millions of shots last year and has spread misinformation about vaccines while promoting the use of the ineffective hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19. A recent report by the Brazilian Senate says he should be charged with genocide for his handling of the pandemic.

Yet Brazilians have a first-dose rate of 71% — better than the United States’. The U.S. has a higher rate of full vaccination but that’s likely because Brazilians must wait up to three months to get a second shot of a two-dose regimen. That is meant to allow as many people as possible to start receiving shots from the still-limited supply.

In Brazil’s largest cities, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, a whopping 99% of eligible adults have gotten their first jab, Bloomberg reported.

Like in the United States, misinformation is spread on social media, but that’s up against decades of internationally recognized vaccination campaigns for other diseases. Brazil even has a beloved vaccination mascot called “Ze Gotinha” (roughly translated as “Joe Droplet”), created in the 1980s to put children at ease when receiving the polio vaccine.

In June, South America represented 44% of the world’s COVID fatalities, but that number plunged to 9% in late September, Bloomberg reported. By no means does that mean the pandemic is under control, especially when millions still lack access to vaccines in places such as Venezuela.

That brings us back to the United States and Florida, where we’re suffering from an embarrassment of riches. Anyone can get a vaccine at any time, few questions asked. So why are places with higher poverty rates and lower access to healthcare beating us?

In a country founded on the tradition of challenging authority, Americans’ healthy skepticism of government has been put on steroids and co-opted by conspiracy theories and far-right media personalities. Even before COVID, anti-vaxx was already an American phenomenon. Not too long ago, many well-meaning parents refused to give MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccines to their children out of fear they caused autism.

America has arguably the best medicine in the world but has failed, in this instance, to effectively make the case for public health measures. In Puerto Rico, there were vaccine drives aimed at specific kinds of business, such as manufacturing and agriculture. Vaccines were mandated for government workers and those at restaurants, bars and movie theaters. Nonprofits such as VOCES, a vaccine coalition, have played a role, too, in coordinating vaccination events, educating against vaccine misinformation and equipping health workers with coronavirus vaccination training.

We thought the U.S. government’s unprecedented pace in buying and distributing vaccines to states would overcome its logistical challenges. Other countries looked at us with envy but now they are baffled. What Americans and Floridians are doing is the equivalent of throwing food away while our neighbors starve.