Free vaccine doesn’t mean equal access for all

Bivalent vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna are arriving in Maryland this month, free for everyone, with the federal government footing the bill through the end of the year — but that’s not enough to ensure equal access this fall. Those who encounter barrier after barrier to get health care, like many in Maryland’s migrant and immigrant communities, won’t get their shots. When COVID vaccines were first released in 2021, numerous barriers jumped up to prevent marginalized and overlooked members of our communities, like asylum-seekers, refugees, newly arrived immigrants, and immigrant food and farmworkers, from accessing the vaccine, even though they were free.