P.J. Parmar has just struck out with a 76-year-old Congolese grandmother. The 46-year-old family physician has been providing health care to Colorado’s resettled refugees for more than ten years and has cultivated a high degree of trust. But not today, not with this grandmother.
“I told her, ‘Corona vaccine, right here, right now,’” Parmar laments. There are dark circles under his eyes, over a mask that’s hanging by a thread. “Couldn’t talk her into it. Maybe next time.”
The “right here, right now” COVID-19 vaccine is at Aurora’s Mango House, a former JC Penney store turned community space that offers refugees and asylum-seekers medical and dental services, retail space for local immigrant businesses, and a highly regarded food hall serving a taste of faraway homes, including dishes from Burma, Sudan, Ethiopia, Myanmar, Syria and Nepal.