Of the 500,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine to reach Haiti so far, only about 5%, have been injected into people’s arms. The Aug. 14 earthquake gets a lot of blame for that, but the assassination of Haiti’s president and a hesitancy among people to get their shots have also delayed the distribution, health officials said.
Within hours of the earthquake in Haiti, relief efforts were underway in the Diocese of Brooklyn and elsewhere to raise funds and provide emergency supplies to that hard-hit Caribbean nation.
Doctors and nurses in Haiti don’t know when they will get vaccines to fight COVID-19. Meanwhile, many people in the Caribbean nation do not practice social distancing or wear masks. Consequently, on doctor said, “the precarity is very high in Haiti.”
Last year, Manhattan-based Catholic Medical Mission Board built wells and other catchment structures to bring safe water to more than 260,000 people worldwide. The need is dire. Unsafe water carries deadly viruses or bacteria that cause diarrhea, cholera, dysentery, typhoid, and polio.
