‘WE SHOULD NOT MISS OUR SHOT’
Amid concern over vaccine disparity, Bridgeport pastors line up for theirs
As Connecticut officials committed to expanding efforts to address disparities in vaccination rates across the state, nine pastors in Bridgeport received first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine Friday morning and urged residents to protect themselves and each other. “It is time for us to fight the fear of taking this vaccine and fight the fear of COVID and emerge boldly as a community and as a people to rise up and take back our lives,” Rev. Carl McCluster, senior pastor of Shiloh Baptist Church, said outside St. Vincent’s Medical Center, a division of Hartford Healthcare.
“For us, it begins right here with these COVID-19 shots today,” he said.
State data released Thursday shows that at least 39% of white Connecticut residents 65 or older have received at least one vaccine dose, compared with 27% of Hispanic residents, 26% of Asian residents and 21% of Black residents in that age group.
Out of all Connecticut municipalities, Hartford, Bridgeport, New Britain and Waterbury — among the state’s least white and poorest municipalities — have reported the smallest share of the population with at least one dose of the vaccine.
Gov. Ned Lamont said the state is redoubling its efforts to reach undeserved communities that are lagging behind in terms of vaccinations.
“We’re bringing the mobile vans, we’re going to bring them right to your churches, make it easy for people,” said Lamont, who also attended the Bridgeport event. “If they can’t get to St. Vincent’s, we’ll come to you and do everything we can to make a difference.”
Connecticut is currently partnering with the Yale School of Public Health to create a system by which it can measure how well its vaccine distribution meets target numbers within specific ZIP codes, Dr. Deidre S. Gifford, acting commissioner of the Department of Public Health said Friday.
Based on preliminary research, the state estimates that about 30% of the population lives in ZIP codes with a high “social vulnerability index,” meaning areas with high levels of poverty, low access to transportation and crowded housing.
“There should be no disparity between the proportion of the vaccine going to the lower-SVI ZIP codes and the higher-SVI ZIP codes,” Gifford said.
Creating that ZIP code-level data will help the state better target its vaccine distribution, leading to the “really intensive work” of connecting residents of those ZIP codes to shots of the COVID-19 vaccine, Gifford added. That process will involve relying on community health workers and mobile clinics, among other methods.
Hartford Healthcare has created two teams of mobile vaccination vehicles that will be dispatched multiple times per week to vaccinate residents, according to Hartford Healthcare CEO Jeff Flaks. In addition to the vaccination “mega-centers” set up across the state — including at the Xfinity Theatre in Hartford — vaccination clinics will be set up at homeless shelters, churches and community centers.
Dr. Funmi Falade, director of critical care services at St. Vincent’s, noted Friday that it was almost the one-year anniversary of the day the hospital admitted its first COVID-19 patient to the ICU.
“He was young and he looked like my husband,” she said, adding that the pandemic has revealed sharp racial disparities in health care.
“This is the time when we have to pull each other out of this. We should not miss our shot. With every vaccine taken are many lives saved,” she said.
After receiving her shot of the COVID-19 vaccine, Rev. Brenda Barnes, senior pastor of Faith Gospel Assembly Members Inc., said that she opted to get vaccinated as self-protection — as well as to serve as an example in her community.
Barnes herself and a number of her family members were infected by COVID-19 and survived, but many others did not, she said. Just last month, her father died of COVID-19, followed by his brother the next week and then two family friends.
“In the past thirty days, it’s been four deaths,” she said. “So I want to be an example to take responsibility for yourself and your health...We should not be desensitized to these deaths.”