SOMOS Network Physicians Will Give Vaccine

NEW YORK GOVERNOR ANDREW CUOMO has authorized a network of independent doctors in New York City to give the coronavirus vaccine to some of the city’s poorest residents, the bulk of them people of color—communities that have been underserved thus far in the distribution of the vaccine. SOMOS Community Care, a network of 2,500 physicians—most of them primary care physicians serving 1 million Hispanic, Asian-American, and African American Medicaid patients—will be given up to 1 million doses of the vaccine.

At a March 26, 2021 news conference in the Bronx announcing the move, Gov. Cuomo said that “the state is going to be providing vaccines directly to SOMOS so they can get those needles in those arms in those hard-to-reach communities.” The governor noted that New York City’s vaccination efforts have thus far failed to give sufficient access to minorities.

“We need to do vaccine equity,” he said, noting that, for example, the city is 27 percent black, yet only 19 percent of that population is vaccinated; by contrast, the city is 53 percent white and already 55 percent of these residents has been vaccinated.

Initially, 75 SOMOS medical practices will begin distributing the vaccine in the coming weeks; 100 practices will be involved in the effort pending supply of the vaccine. That means patients can make an appointment directly through SOMOS (somosvacunas.com), go to their regular doctor and get vaccinated right in the doctor’s office.

Thus far, New York State has relied primarily on hospitals and other medical facilities to distribute the vaccine, an infrastructure that is harder to navigate and gain access to for the poor, especially people of color. What’s more, Blacks and Hispanics, stressed the governor, have “less trust in the system” and have been skeptical about the safety and efficacy of the vaccine.

SOMOS doctors will rely on their unique relationship with their patients to create a level of trust and comfort, moving people to become willing to be vaccinated. That strong doctor-patient bond—with the physician functioning like the family doctor of old—hinges on several factors:

The majority of SOMOS doctors speak the same language and share the cultural background of the people they serve and in whose communities the physicians are based. This cultural competence has proven to be key factor in doctors understanding the needs of the people in their care.

The SOMOS network also puts a premium on the contribution of Community Health Workers, who visit patients’ homes, reminding them of medical appointments and assessing circumstances in the home or family that can impact people’s health. The latter fall in the category of the Social Determinants of Health—substandard housing, unemployment, criminal justice issues, etc. SOMOS doctors work closely with Community-Based Organizations that can address some of the issues.

SOMOS physicians also carefully integrate behavioral health into patients’ overall treatment. In sum, SOMOS doctors’ offices are a gateway to quality, holistic, comprehensive care, which makes for better longer-term health outcomes; and the doctors are compensated accordingly, earning more as their patients do better and, for example, stay out of costly hospital beds.

SOMOS has been functioning in accord with the Value-Based Payment system that rewards superior care—in contrast with the transactional payment formula of the traditional Medicaid model that is prone to waste and fraud.

SOMOS got its start thanks to Gov. Cuomo authorizing, in 2014, the Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment program, which ran through 2020 and laid the foundation that enabled SOMOS to provide superior care to New York City’s poorest residents. A new chapter in the SOMOS record of service to the most vulnerable has now begun with the vaccination program.

In his remarks at the news conference, Dr. Ramon Tallaj, founder and chairman of SOMOS, recalled that this is not the first time that New York’s governor called on the organization for vital aid. In March 2020, right at the start of the pandemic, the governor asked SOMOS to begin testing staff at the New York Stock Exchange, which it would do through the summer. SOMOS ran numerous testing sites throughout the city—as well as in Texas, Florida, and Georgia. To-date, said Dr. Tallaj, SOMOS has administered 1 million test and helped distribute 2 million meals to New York families hard-hit by unemployment as a result of the economic fall-out of the pandemic.

SOMOS doctors have success with their patients, said Dr. Tallaj, because “we understand their culture—because we are immigrants like them, we are the same people … we serve poor people in our neighborhoods, near their homes, near their apartments, because medicine is local and because people tend to choose doctors based on their values.”

Speaking of SOMOS’ new task, Dr. Tallaj said that his doctors—“champions of preventive medicine”—will distribute “the vaccine of hope to end the virus of loneliness, which has people dying.”

Mario J. Paredes is CEO of SOMOS Community Care, a network of 2,500 independent physicians—most of them primary care providers—serving close to a million of New York City’s most vulnerable Medicaid patients. 

"We remember them’"

 

IT WAS A YEAR AGO, on March 11, 2001, that the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 pandemic. Media have abundantly noted the horrifying statistics: more than 2.5 million dead worldwide and more than 500,000 people who died of the coronavirus in the U.S. alone. 

But what about the human reality behind those numbers—the humanity of the many who died, and the many millions affected by the loss of loved ones or those who suffered severe economic hardship as measures to combat the pandemic decimated countless businesses? Few remember their name or can tell their story. Most of us have never heard about them.

To help remedy the situation, on March 12, 2021, America Media organized a tribute “We remember them: a virtual prayer service to remember those who died of Covid-19.” With this event, America Media, publisher of the Jesuit America Magazine, made a moving, compelling gesture to throw light on some of the wealth of human richness that perished largely unknown and without acknowledgment. 

As Father Matt Malone, SJ—president and editor in chief of America Media—made clear in his opening remarks, the group is more than a media company, “it is a Church ministry.” As such, it helped pay tribute to unsung heroes who lost their lives to the virus, leaving behind painful loss in their family, community, and work settings. 

The service underscored that the weight of individual human tragedies goes well beyond the statistics, which sound dramatic but fail to do justice to the immense value of the human persons wiped out by the pandemic. Nor do the numbers do justice to the untold suffering the victims’ passing leaves behind—the personal, profoundly human cost behind the numbers. Yet, this is how much of U.S. society marks the one-year anniversary of the pandemic—putting up the numbers yet again and recounting the economic cost, practical measures, etc. 

Important as these are, they amount to an impoverished way of taking stock of the wreckage caused by the pandemic. America Media’s “We remember them’ spiritual tribute to the victims of the coronavirus was an expression of Christian humanism—an acknowledgment, a celebration of the mystery of human suffering and the infinite depth of the human spirit.

It is a sad testimony to society’s growing indifference to the higher things of reality, to transcendent values that so little is done to capture and acknowledge the sickness, the pain, the isolation, the abandonment, and the lack of compassion experienced by so many victims as the disease ran its course.

In its tribute to COVID-19 victims, America Media was decidedly inclusive, saluting: family members “who gifted us with their gentle care, wisdom, and support;” essential workers, who sacrificed themselves for others; teachers, “whose devotion to their students and school communities shaped the next generation of those who will steward life on this earth;” consecrated men and women,  “who so desired God and devoted themselves to lives of heartfelt worship and generous service;” friends, “who through the friendship we shared with them showed us the face of God;” migrants, refugees and asylum seekers … “for all experiencing homelessness …; and for all who were ignored, forgotten and cast out by their communities—and even their loved ones;”; women and men who were incarcerated … whose dignity was never forgotten by God; and for all those who ministered to them and have died;” and “all who were unnamed and unclaimed who have died, who do not have others to remember them.”

In several of these categories of victims, witnesses—family members, friends, colleagues—in words and images introduced and remembered COVID-19 victims whom they loved and respected and whose loss has left them bereft. Dr. Ramon Tallaj, founder and Chairman of SOMOS Community Care, a network of 2,500 independent physicians serving New York City’s most destitute communities of color, paid tribute to 12 SOMOS doctors who gave their lives on the frontlines fighting the pandemic.

Dr. Tallaj noted the work of “immigrant doctors” like himself taking on the responsibility of caring for vulnerable people of color in New York City, especially Hispanics who suffered disproportionately from the virus due, in part, to small, cramped living conditions where infections happened readily. More than 8,000 Hispanics died in New York, many of whose names were never known or forgotten. The “We remember them” prayer service acknowledged many of them among the “unnamed and unclaimed.”

The prayer service should serve as a reminder and inspiration for churches, mosques, and synagogues across the country to pay tribute—every year— to those in their communities who died of the virus. The same is true for corporations, universities, and other major organizations. For a full and genuine recovery from the pandemic, it is vital to give human face to the brutal numbers and acknowledge and celebrate the human dignity of each of the victims.

Mario J. Paredes is C.E.O. of SOMOS Community Care, a network of 2,500 independent physicians—mostly primary care providers—serving close to a million of New York City’s most vulnerable Medicaid patients. He also is a member of the America/Media Board.

Pope Francis: Eight Years of Pastoral Zeal for the Common Home

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Will the pandemic spell the end of globalization?

AT THE END OF FEBRUARY 2021, the pandemic’s global toll is staggering: 113,467,303 confirmed cases worldwide and 2,520,400 deaths, including 510,000 fatalities in the US alone. Not a single country has gone untouched and for almost a year now, countless borders have been essentially closed. COVID-19—the first modern deadly global pandemic, rivaled only by the Black Death in the 14th century and the Spanish Flu (1918-20)—has brought to a screeching halt the free movement of peoples and goods across the world; the dream and promise of globalization have been dealt a blow from which they may not soon fully recover.

In fact, the reassertion of the individual state, throwing off the yoke of global forms of governance and policy making had already begun in recent years, well before the pandemic hit and made closed borders a necessity. President Donald Trump’s ‘America First’ model severely affected US trade with many countries, especially China; the Trump Administration also limited immigration and put the overall focus on building up the US, with international relations taking a back seat. 

In Europe, the United Kingdom withdrew from the European Union, in part to be exempt from liberal immigration policies and to re-establish the country’s sovereignty. Other examples include Hungary and Poland, which had been closing their border for non-Christian immigration. The pandemic, and all the emergency measures it triggered, will undoubtedly further diminish the globalization utopia, intensifying trends that have been already well underway. The global financial crisis in 2008 also put a major damper on the enthusiasm for—and workability of— globalization.

Globalization had gotten its main impulse from the neo-liberal policies of the 1980s in key countries, in particular Ronald Reagan’s America and Margaret Thatcher’s Great Britain. The role of the state was curtailed. Instead, free-market policies won the day and set many countries on the road to economic liberalization and the creation of a global network. Exceptions included the insular nations of the China and Russia, among others. The European Union, too, played a major role in promoting global trade and open borders.

With the arrival of the pandemic, governments were forced to strengthen state institutions, to protect citizens’ health, maintain social cohesion, and protect and repair national economies hard-hit by financial losses and liabilities due to the closure of businesses and the unemployment crisis. Not surprisingly, international solidarity has also declined, as most countries are failing to help nations that are particularly struggling; in that vein, Italy and Spain, both overwhelmed by the pandemic, complained about the lack of support from their northern neighbors.

The pandemic has interfered with the world economy in all its phases: production, distribution, and consumption. The increasing complexity of the distribution and supply-chain network, the lifeblood of the global economy, makes the structure very vulnerable. After the end of the Cold War, the victorious powers designed this complexity so that, for the sake of peace, countries would be interdependent. Any particular state would have to rely on other states for goods, materials and parts essential for the functioning of its economy.

That elaborate international system has now been dealt a blow by the pandemic, which has been prompting individual nations to try to become self-sufficient, within its borders, as within a closed system. The global economy, with all its moving parts, its delicate structure is very difficult to repair. Matter are made still worse by trade wars and accompanying tensions between major powers like the US and China—the two principal drivers of the world economy. What’s more it will be a long road for many countries before they are able to fully participate in the world economy before their own economic house is in order.

Aside from the health and food industries, rebuilding a country’s overall economic productivity will be extremely slow while—due to the pandemic—the systems of transportation and distribution are not optimally functional and when consumers are unable or hesitant to go shopping. Matters are made worse by the relative abandonment of the free-market system so eminently suitable to and essential for globalization, with its free movement of capital. Instead, just as happened in the wake of the financial crisis of 2008, the state begins borrowing and investing heavily in public services, especially health care. This dynamic scares off private investment, shrinking the free flow of capital so essential for the process of globalization.

Yet, this shift is called for in the battle against COVID-19, such as massive spending on the coronavirus vaccines, which is obviously a drain on the economy. And all this emergency spending is very likely to continue in one form or another once the pandemic has been truly defeated, such as spending on research on COVID-19 and other deadly virus strains, and on developing ways to protect the population from the next pandemic. 

It is thus that the pandemic will hurt globalization. Logistically, globalization will continue in the form of the rapid exchange and distribution of information, air travel, and commerce. What will likely also survive the pandemic is countries going it alone, downplaying international cooperation, taking care of their own, and manifesting a xenophobic bent. That inward-looking orientation will rob globalization of its humanist, internationalist soul.

SOMOS doctors actively do their part in fighting the pandemic

WITH MOST OF THE FOCUS on state, city and governments tackling the coronavirus pandemic, a remarkable network of doctors has been on the frontlines in the battle against COVID-19 in New York City since the very start. These physicians, who are the backbone of SOMOS Community Care, have not drawn the limelight but have quietly done their job fighting the ravages of the pandemic.

SOMOS has proven its effectiveness and earned its stripes. No doubt, its record in the battle against the coronavirus—showing that primary care physicians can play a key role—helped persuade New York State health authorities to give SOMOS doctors the privileged task of administering the vaccine.

This network of more than 2,500 community-based, independent physicians—most of them primary care providers—are caring for vulnerable African American, Hispanic and Chinese American Medicaid patients throughout the city. The populations have been particularly vulnerable to the virus, because of a high incidence of underlying conditions, cramped living conditions among other factors. These neediest patients have been the focus of SOMOS Community Care from the very start.

Months ago, when it came to encouraging people to get tested for the virus, SOMOS doctors’ close relationships with their patients—in whose lives they play the role of the family doctor of old—made all the difference. Plus, there is the fact that in many cases the physicians speak the same language and share the same cultural background as they people in their care.

These advantages also come into play now that these doctors have begun administering the vaccine. SOMOS doctors can establish patients’ trust and confidence about the safety of the vaccine and ensure the equitable distribution of the vaccine in communities of color.

The work of SOMOS’ fight against the virus began right when the pandemic first hit the US, in March 2020. At the request of Governor Andrew Cuomo, SOMOS doctors and staff began testing personnel at the New York Stock Exchange, a vital institution in the life of the US economy. The testing there began in mid-March and continued through the summer and fall of last year.

The organization has been operating more than 51 tri-lingual testing sites, with service in Spanish, English, and Chinese, based at Catholic and Protestant churches throughout New York City, while SOMOS is also testing at 33 office sites and two drive-thru locations. SOMOS, to-date, has administered more than 500,000 coronavirus tests. The count at SOMOS-run sites in Texas, Arizona, Florida, and Georgia bring the total up to 1 million. SOMOS has also been testing at more than 400 public schools in the city. Some 400 SOMOS practices—half of the total—play a part in the testing process.

At the same time, SOMOS partnered with restaurants and entrepreneurs in some of the communities it serves to provide meals to families hard-hit by the economic fall-out from the pandemic, families whose breadwinners lost their jobs and were plunged into poverty. To-date, more than 5M prepared meals have been distributed. SOMOS also worked with local grocers and other community-based organizations to purchase, package, and distribute food products. SOMOS also helped struggling small businesses in minority communities get back on their feet financially.

SOMOS has also finance the purchase and delivery of personal protective equipment (PPE) and consumable medical supplies necessary for COVID-19 testing; medical waste disposal related to COVID-19 testing; labor costs associated with medical staff providing COVID-19 testing; and additional costs for testing sites, including costs related to lease, mobilization, and demobilization costs, as well as certain operating and maintenance costs.

All the while SOMOS engaged in significant outreach and communications efforts to disseminate public information regarding health and safety measures and provide warnings about risks and hazards. This communication effort encompassed all forms of media, including radio, newspaper, pamphlets, and television. This work continues now in service of the vaccination process.

With hundreds of doctors now vaccinated, SOMOS doctors feel confident that they can immunize their entire patient body—at least those over 65—in the coming weeks. Mayor Bill de Blasio announced earlier this year that SOMOS doctors will be vaccinating first responders at Taft High School in the Bronx, George Wingate High School in Brooklyn, and Brandeis High School in Manhattan. SOMOS doctors is also administering the vaccine at Yankee Stadium and the Aqueduct Racetrack.

SOMOS’s participation in the vaccination process will balance hospital-based distribution and make getting the vaccine more convenient for many New Yorkers. The SOMOS doctors were engaged thanks to the lobbying efforts of SOMOS President Dr. Henry Chen and SOMOS Founder and Chairman Dr. Ramon Tallaj, who is an advisor for the execution of New York State’s COVID-19 Vaccination Program.

All of SOMOS’ activities dealing with the pandemic are closely coordinated with the New York State Department of Health and the City of New York. To help both the testing and vaccination process, SOMOS has stablished two urgent care centers: one in the Bronx and one in Manhattan.

SOMOS has been on the frontlines from the start and paid in treasure (some $20M) and blood—a dozen SOMOS doctors died from the virus and many fell ill doing their jobs. Meanwhile, more than half of SOMOS practices remain closed.

The fight will continue until the virus is defeated—and SOMOS will not quit.

Mario J. Paredes is the CEO of SOMOS Community Care.