Few Black people in Pa. have received COVID-19 vaccines
Updated Feb 19, 2021;
Posted Feb 19, 2021
Dr. Stephen Henderson with Penn State Health Cocoa Outpatient Center, gives 73-year-old Lynn Davis from Cleona, a band aid after he gave her the COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021. | Jason Plotkin, Penn State Health
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Even though he is Black, Henderson said some of his Black patients remain wary of the vaccines.
“It’s challenging for me as a Black physician to convince my patients to get the vaccine,” Henderson said.
“Most of my patients trust me,” he said. “Some of my patients, they still have a lot of issues. I’m a physician and part of the system. So they still have the distrust … That’s not easy.”
‘Mistrust is well earned’: COVID-19 vaccine rollout must reach communities of color, leaders say
Updated Jan 13, 2021;
Posted Jan 13, 2021
Experts say that existing relationships must be leveraged to dismantle historic mistrust of the medical community among communities of color in order to effectively distribute the coronavirus vaccine to those communities. Dr. Sharee Livingston, an OB-GYN with UPMC Lititz, pictured here getting the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in December, said her role as a role model has already led seniors in her community to line up for the vaccine.
Dan Gleiter | dgleiter@pennlive.com
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More Black and brown Americans have contracted the virus and died as a result than white counterparts.
COVID-19 fight in central Pa. gets multiple shots in the arm on Friday
Updated Dec 19, 2020;
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They were shots seen and heard across Pennsylvania and beyond.
“I feel like I was a chosen one,” said Malinda Lampley, a patient care technician at UPMC Pinnacle Harrisburg Hospital.
Lampley was among the first six frontline Harrisburg Hospital employees to receive a shot of COVID-19 vaccine on Friday afternoon. News reporters and TV cameras looked on. Each injection took hardly a minute it looked like people getting routine flu shots at work and generated a round of applause.
Similar scenes took place at other central Pennsylvania hospitals on Friday, including York-based WellSpan Health hospitals and Geisinger in Montour County.