Trying to Vaccinate Homeless Patients Against COVID-19

... People experiencing homelessness are especially vulnerable to disease and often live in close quarters. Reaching them for COVID-19 vaccination is crucial, public health officials say, yet also presents some unique challenges. Addresses and phone numbers change constantly. Few of the people affected have reliable Internet access.

Also, the pandemic put a halt to many mobile clinics and other outreach efforts to homeless encampments; in the meantime, patients scattered or avoided the clinic for fear of infection.

"If they're experiencing homelessness, all bets are off," says Kevin Lindamood, CEO of Health Care for the Homeless in Baltimore, a community health clinic that treats 10,000 patients a year and recently started patient vaccinations. "It's incredibly hard to reach people even in non-COVID times."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this month urged vaccination at soup kitchens and shelters.

But the pandemic curtailed many visits to homeless encampments and other outreach activities by his organization, Lindamood says. The Baltimore mobile clinic run by Health Care for the Homeless — part of a national network of 200 similar clinics — will resume service in coming weeks. But for now, staff are trying to contact eligible patients in their database....