Local Churches Are Becoming Clinics To Encourage Black Communities to Take The Vaccine
Previously, BLACK ENTERPRISE reported on a local doctors group in Philadelphia that helped the city to step up efforts to encourage Black residents to get vaccinated against the coronavirus in light of studies that show that African Americans are more untrusting of the new vaccine due to a long history of medical racism. Now, churches across different states are transforming into vaccine clinics to help instill more trust amongst the Black community.
Outside of traditional hospitals and clinics, many doctors are coming together with local faith leaders to create spaces for residents to be safely vaccinated and gain access to medical treatment in light of the public health crisis. Some say initiatives like these are critical to building more trust in the vaccine.
Karl Anderson, pastor at Gainesville’s Upper Room Church of God in Christ, said too many people he knows and leaders of his Pentecostal-Holiness Christian denomination have already died or become seriously ill with COVID-19.
“In my denomination alone, we’ve lost so many bishops and leaders and parishioners in 2020,” Anderson said. “We’ve really got to do something about this, and quick.”
Anderson and other leaders at Black churches in east Gainesville and other parts of Alachua County are gearing up to open their doors to community members to those who have appointments to receive a coronavirus vaccine, as a place in their own neighborhoods that they can trust.