I’m an 80-year-old essential worker. Why is it so hard for me to get vaccinated? | Opinion

Throughout the pandemic, domestic workers like me have cleaned homes and cared for loved ones in order to keep other peoples’ families safe from COVID. Many of my fellow members of the National Domestic Workers Alliance - PA have contracted the virus from working, and the damage done to their health and livelihoods is devastating. Every day, we live with the nerve-wracking fear that we will get the virus at work or on public transportation and infect our families. Staying home is not an option, particularly because few of us are eligible for governmental financial support because of immigration status.

Vaccination is a matter of life and death for domestic workers, but because Philadelphia has created so many barriers to access, we are denied the ability to save our lives. Philadelphia has supported domestic workers by passing our Domestic Workers Bill of Rights and creating the Philadelphia Worker Relief Fund, hosted by the Mayor’s Fund, which provided financial support to Philadelphia workers who were ineligible for state or federal relief. It’s time to support us again to guarantee that all domestic workers have immediate access to the vaccine.

I’m an 80-year-old essential worker with multiple underlying conditions and a survivor of two strokes. I’ve been a domestic worker in Philadelphia for three decades and spent 14 years as a live-in worker being paid $2 an hour, suffering discrimination and workplace abuse. I’m the primary caretaker for my 11-year-old great-granddaughter, who tried desperately to get me a vaccination appointment. She told me, “I don’t want you to die.” Hearing that breaks my heart.

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Last week, there was a last-minute opportunity to get the vaccine if I reached the clinic in West Philadelphia in 30 minutes. We arrived eight minutes late because of the snow and they canceled my appointment. We cried in the car, devastated that I lost this opportunity to protect my health. Thankfully, I went to the Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium vaccine clinic at 4:30 a.m. on Saturday and received my shot after waiting about an hour and a half. I met Ala Stanford, who leads the consortium, and thanked her for her desperately needed leadership because the city has failed us.

It is no secret that the vaccine rollout in Philadelphia has been gravely mismanaged and poorly coordinated, creating barriers for domestic workers and others to be vaccinated. The guidelines are not clear on which priority category we belong to. There is very little accessible information in languages beyond English on how to register and secure an appointment. There are even fewer ways to get this critical information if you cannot use technology without help. Few domestic workers have primary care doctors to advise us whether it’s safe to be vaccinated if we have other health risks and allergies.

This disastrous lack of basic information, access, and prioritization of us as essential workers compounds fear around immigration, as many of us are undocumented and fear that our information will be shared with ICE, creating the possibility of deportation. Philadelphia’s failures push us further into the shadows.

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In October 2019, we won the most progressive Domestic Workers Bill of Rights in the country to prevent workplace abuses like those I have suffered. We thank City Council, the Department of Labor, and Mayor Jim Kenney for their support. It’s time for the mayor and the Health Department to prioritize us again. We need domestic workers to be recognized as essential workers with vaccine clinics in our neighborhoods; accessible, multilingual educational resources that don’t require digital access; and hotlines in our languages to ask questions about making vaccine appointments and medical and immigration concerns. Lastly, we need the assurance that the information of undocumented people will be protected.

Sixteen thousand domestic workers have cared for the City of Philadelphia throughout the pandemic. We deserve to feel safe going to work that so many people rely on us to do. We cannot let another day pass before we are prioritized for this critically lifesaving vaccine.

Mercedes Reyes is a house cleaner and member leader with the Pennsylvania chapter of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, which has 70 local affiliate organizations and chapters with a membership of nannies, house cleaners, and care workers. She was an active leader in winning the Philadelphia Domestic Workers Bill of Rights and serves on the NDWA-PA vaccination committee. She lives in Southwest Philadelphia with her great-granddaughter.