AdThe Swindales, who are Korean and only speak limited English, couldn’t otherwise navigate the system to get registered for a vaccine.
Ad“A lot of Asian folks in Austin are highly educated and wealthy, but there's a huge, huge income gap between groups in the Asian community, they're not really all a monolith,” said Hailey Easley, executive director for the Austin Asian Community Health Initiative.
So far, she has vaccinated around 100 of Houston’s Korean community and hopes to start weekly vaccination drives for those remaining.
“I feel frustrated because we do not speak English, but we are always overlooked,” Norman said.
Easley said the city of Austin recommends people who don’t speak English call 3-1-1, but the number has long waiting times.