Churches: COVID-19 mobile vaccination units join with Black worship leaders to reach people of color
Black churches, which historically have served as trusted messengers, support systems and nerve centers of activism in their neighborhoods, are now taking the lead across San Bernardino County, partnering with the county, public health officials and medical professionals to get coronavirus vaccines in the arms of underserved community members.
Friday, Black faith leaders announced a partnership with San Bernardino County and public health partners, including Loma Linda University Health, to hold mobile COVID-19 vaccination clinics in San Bernardino churches.
Since the pandemic began, county offi
cials have attempted to ensure the equitable distribution of vaccines, said Curt Hagman, chairman of the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors. Speaking at a news conference Friday announcing the new strategic partnership, Hagman said the county is “committed to vaccinating everyone.”
“We’re the largest county in the state and we’re diverse,” Hagman said, adding that the mobile vaccination clinics are a continuation of the county’s efforts to recognize that racism is a public health crisis.
San Bernardino County was the first in California to make that declaration in June, about a month after the police-custody death of George Floyd in Minneapolis sparked a national outcry against police violence and calls for social justice reforms.
Churches have taken a leadership role in vaccinating Blacks because they can serve as trusted messengers in a community that has had a turbulent history with medical professionals, said the Rev. Samuel Casey, one of the pastors leading the new partnership.
Casey, who is executive director of Congregations Organized for Prophetic Leadership, said unethical medical experiments on Blacks, such as the Tuskegee Syphilis Study that was conducted between 1932 and 1972 by the U.S. Public Health Service and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on hundreds of men were told they were receiving free health care from the federal government when they were not, has led to distrust.
“Usually when county officials engage communities of color, the expert never looks like the people they are talking to,” Casey said. “You cannot put a blondhaired, blue-eyed person in a Black community to talk about vaccines. The same applies to other communities of color. You need trusted voices from those communities explaining these things.”
Casey said he was suspicious of the COVID-19 vaccines himself until he heard from a Black doctor about the science behind the vaccines, their safety and efficacy. Similarly, when Black faith leaders speak, the community will listen, he said.
“We need to do this so we can get back to our lives, be safe and protected,” Casey said.
Loma Linda University Health has had a strong working relationship, even before the pandemic began, with community as well as faith leaders to promote health and to increase access to health care for Black and Latino residents in the region, said Juan Carlos Belliard, LLUH assistant vice president for community partnerships.
“We have leveraged these longstanding relationships to address the current crisis, focusing efforts on getting those that have been hit the hardest vaccinated against COVID-19,” Belliard said. “It’s been a wonderful collaborative relationship bringing together the power of faith and science in an effort to keep these vulnerable communities healthy and protected.”
Formidable challenge
Members of Black churches in San Bernardino, such as Beverly Jones Wright, who worked for the county’s health department as a public health educator, are volunteering their time to the new effort. Wright has been helping older congregants in her church, New Hope Missionary Baptist Church, get to vaccine clinics by driving them to the site, waiting in line for some and making sure they keep their followup appointments.
“Many of these people who need the vaccine
didn’t have any sites they could go to in their communities and a lot of them don’t have transportation,” she said. “Even if they get to the place, they have to stand three or four hours in line.”
Meanwhile, vaccination clinics are open to those outside an immediate community, which can make it difficult for local residents to get appointments. Wright said she has seen people come to San Bernardino from as far as Los Angeles and Palm Springs to get vaccinated.
“There needs to be a way we can get the vaccines to the people who really need them,” she said, adding the mobile clinics at the churches offer some promise of addressing that need.
The county has taken the correct approach by reaching out to faith leaders, Wright said.
“People trust their pastors,” she said.
Painful experience
Most Blacks in the Inland Empire would not have access to vaccines without the mobile vaccination clinics and Black congregations working to bring them to their communities, said the Rev. Steven Shepard, who heads St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church in San Bernardino.
Shepard received a COVID-19 diagnosis in December. He took a coronavirus test after experiencing extreme fatigue and stabbing pains in his chest. When he went to the hospital, he said, he was told he had pneumonia and blood clots in his legs and lungs.
“I spent four days in the hospital,” Shepard said. “I was ready to leave that place because I could hear when people in other rooms would code out. I started to have survivor’s guilt. Not only is COVID-19 a physical ailment, it can also manifest into an emotional and psychological issue.”
While experiencing the disease has given him a deeper understanding of its gravity, Shepard said the pandemic has provided other vital lessons.
“We will all suffer if we do not work together,” he said. “COVID-19 hit Black and Brown communities because of our lack of access to health care. Without health care, money or healthy food, we suffer at a higher rate.”
Shepard said he is happy to see public health officials and hospitals reach out to underserved communities.
“My hope is that this partnership will bring a better day for our community and healing, which we all need,” he said.