Last week, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), Xavier Becerra, celebrated his one-year confirmation anniversary. Becerra is the first ever Latino to hold this position just as COVID-19 vaccines were first becoming available.
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the Latinx community at higher rates than other communities.
As of last week, the Centers for Disease and Prevention (CDC) reported that at least 52.3% of the Latinx community has been fully vaccinated.
Becerra has been successful in getting the Latinx community vaccinated by providing information about COVID-19 and vaccinations in Spanish, influencing Spanish language media, and fighting disinformation by getting the support of Latinx leaders and groups.
Through his efforts, Becerra has increased HHS’ number of groups and organizations that help with the enrollment process to sign up for Obamacare. This has led to 14 million Americans to sign up for Obamacare.
Becerra’s staff stated that through his undertaking he has provided $7.3 billion to about 1,400 federally qualified health clinics that serve Latinx families. Many of these federally qualified health centers have administered nearly 15 million COVID-19 vaccines, 67% of which have gone to other communities.
“All successes were not a coincidence or accidental. Otherwise, they would have been done by secretaries before me. It takes work, hard work, sometimes work that is not publicly visible,” stated Xavier Becerra.
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