NEW YORK (AP) Calling a hospital to see if a bed was available for a COVID-19 patient isn t part of Houston television news anchor Chauncy Glover s job description. Neither is guiding a viewer online to find a place to be vaccinated.
He s done both, and isn t alone. Listeners and readers across the country are reaching out directly to journalists for help during the coronavirus pandemic, and many are responding.
“We are now doing more than we bargained for,” Glover said. “We have to be smarter on these topics. We have to know more. For so many people, it may be life or death.”
Black community in Texas faces critical moment in COVID-19 fight
KTRK
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Despite evidence of the
virus s disproportionate effects on people of color, leaders warned Wednesday night during an ABC13 town hall that infections and hospitalizations in the Black community are likely to rise unless hesitation about the vaccine is addressed soon. The legacy of mistrust goes back many many years, and it s not just in medicine but in other areas, said Dr. Jacquelyn Johnson Minter, health and human services director of Fort Bend County. But I think the really important thing to consider is that we don t want that legacy to then create a new legacy of more illness.
Leaders said during ABC13's town hall Wednesday that unsafe behavior and misinformation could lead to "unusual strains" of COVID-19 and more deaths if left unchecked.
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) While CDC data reveals the
Eyewitness News anchor Mayra Moreno hosted the first of a two-night town hall event Wednesday, focusing on the hesitation of our most underserved communities toward getting the COVID-19 vaccine.
The CDC says Black and Latino Americans are nearly three times more likely to die from COVID-19 complications than whites. Eighty percent of the patients that I have in my COVID unit are Hispanic or of Latino origin, said Dr. Joseph Varon, chief medical officer at United Memorial Medical Center. Everybody went to see their abuelas (grandma) for Christmas. Every single one of them.