CT working to educate communities of color about COVID-19 vaccine
NORWALK — The coronavirus has ravaged communities across America, but people of color have seen especially high levels of devastation.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Black people account for 1.4 times as many coronavirus cases as white people, 3.7 times as many hospitalizations and 2.8 times as many deaths. Hispanic and Indigenous people are seeing similarly increased infection and death rates and four times as many hospitalizations as white people. Asians are seeing increased rates as well.
In an effort to mitigate this, Connecticut organizations are working to arm communities of color with information about COVID-19 and getting the vaccine. The hope is to help people make informed choices and lessen the impact of the pandemic on these communities.
Tiffany Donelson, president and CEO of Connecticut Health Foundation, said a number of historical events made people of color distrustful of the health care system. Black men told they were receiving free health care instead were given syphilis as part of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. The government sterilized Puerto Rican women without their full consent between the 1930s and 1970s, and Henrietta Lacks, a Black woman, had her cells used for research without her consent.
“Those are major events and issues that we’re familiar with, but there’s so many others that show when people of color enter the health care system, they’re not treated equally,” Donelson said. “There’s a huge distrust of the health care system overall. You have a vaccine that seems like it’s created quickly and people are concerned. There’s a huge amount of hesitancy within the Black and brown community to take the COVID-19 vaccine.”
The Connecticut Health Foundation is one of many groups working to address these concerns in a way that’s perceived by people of color. Along with 4-CT, they launched a grant to bring community health workers to local health departments so people can learn about the virus from people they know and trust.
URU The Right To Be, Inc., a nonprofit content production company tackling social justice issues via arts-based initiatives, launched a campaign called Our Humanity to supply
Black, Latino and Indigenous communities with accurate information and interventions against COVID-19.
URU is partnering with over 300 local and national organizations and taking a multipronged approach — incorporating training series for collaborators, virtual town halls with doctors who speak English and Spanish, workshops, newsletters, fliers and social media campaigns — to educate not just on the vaccine, but on the coronavirus as a whole.
Hartford-based organization, Health Equity Solutions, Inc., is in the process of executing a plan that helps faith-based and educational based networks to address vaccine hesitancy.
“Our goal is not to force people to take the vaccine,” said Executive Director Tekisha Everette. “Our goal is to
ensure people have knowledge...so they can make the right decisions for themselves and their family.”
Similar efforts are being made at the state and local level. Communities like Norwalk and Danbury are including faith and community leaders as part of their vaccine outreach, understanding they are trusted voices for many people of color.
The state Department of Public Health is scaling up a “large, inclusive community outreach program,” per Maura Fitzgerald, who heads communications for the state DPH. This program will talk to faith-based leaders, nonprofit organizations and other community leaders to provide them with materials and support needed to reach their communities.
“COVID-19 has disproportionately impacted communities of color here in Connecticut and across the country,” Fitzgerald said. “Outreach to those communities to discuss the COVID vaccine ... and encourage those community members to get the vaccine when they are eligible is a high priority for DPH. It’s critical to our efforts to meet these communities where they are at and work in partnership with trusted community leaders to encourage community members to get the vaccine.”