‘It’s time to fight the fear’
9 Bridgeport area clergy get public COVID-19 vaccinations
BRIDGEPORT — The Rev. Carl McCluster has a saying at his church: “fighting fear with faith and facts.”
McCluster, pastor of Shiloh Baptist Church in Bridgeport, was one of nine Bridgeport-area clergy who gathered Friday outside St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Bridgeport to get their first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.
Before getting his dose, McCluster spoke about the importance of the vaccine in fighting the deadly illness that has killed more than half a million people nationwide. Though many people might have reservations about the vaccine, now is not the time for hesitation, he said.
“It is time for us to fight the fear of taking this vaccine,” he said. “It is time to fight the fear of COVID and emerge
boldly as a community and as a people to rise up and take back our lives. To us, this begins right here with these COVID shots today.”
Friday’s event was partly an effort to address the hesitancy some people still have about the vaccine and to help fight racial and ethnic disparities surrounding the treatment.
On Thursday, the state released data showing that at least 39 percent of white Connecticut residents 65 and older have received a first dose, compared with 21 percent of Black residents in that age group and 27 percent of Hispanic residents.
The inequality has been attributed to a variety of factors, including a lack of access to the vaccine in some of Connecticut’s cities and a general suspicion of the vaccine itself.
During Friday’s event, many people spoke about the disparities and how they need to be acknowledged and overcome. The gesture by McCluster and other clergy demonstrates “the ability to impact the disparities that exist within our communities, which must be eliminated,” said Jeffrey Flaks, president and CEO of Hartford HealthCare, who spoke at the event.
He said Hartford HealthCare is trying to break down those inequities in multiple ways, such as offering mega vaccination clinics all over the state, including Central High School in Bridgeport and Sacred Heart University in Fairfield.
The participation of community leaders like McCluster are crucial to help remove some of the safety concerns or other reservations people have about the vaccine, said Bill Hoey, vice president of mission Integration, Hartford HealthCare Fairfield Region.
“What’s so powerful about all these pastors coming together in a group is that they are the trusted leaders in their communities,” he said. “They will carry the message forward that getting a vaccination is the right thing to do, the safe thing to do and the appropriate thing to do.”
Others who spoke at the event included Bridgeport’s chief administrative officer Janene W. Hawkins. Like Hoey, she applauded the clergy for setting an example.
“It is our belief that everything rises and falls with leadership,” she said. “It is one thing to say something but it is another thing to do it.”
Gov. Ned Lamont also attended the vaccination event and talked about how essential the vaccine is to making Connecticut safe and healthy.
“A month ago, we were losing 40 to 45 people a day” to COVID-19, Lamont said. “Yesterday it was eight people. That’s still eight people too many.”
But, he added, the progress is proof that the measures Connecticut is taking are
working.
“We’re getting through this,” Lamont said. “We’re making real progress as a state (and) as a country, but we’re not through it yet.”
He urged people at Friday’s event to continue to spread the word about vaccinations.
“Get vaccinated, and tell a friend,” Lamont said.
Last week, 11 more people tested positive for the flu in Connecticut, but numbers remain much lower than normal this season.
According to the latest data from the state Department of Public Health, as of
Feb. 20, 69 people had tested positive for the flu in Connecticut, up from 58 the week before. There were no new flu-associated hospitalizations or deaths, which has been the case for several weeks.
Typically, flu in Connecticut begins in mid-fall and peaks around January or February. But this year has been an uncharacteristically quiet one for the contagious respiratory illness.
To compare, last year, as of Feb. 15, there had already been 1,909 flu-related hospitalizations, 49 deaths and 9,210 people who had tested positive for the flu. Health experts have said that many of the measures used to control the COVID-19 pandemic — including maskwearing and social distancing — have helped to keep flu cases low.
For the past several weeks, flu activity in the state has been classified as sporadic, meaning that a small number of laboratoryconfirmed flu cases or a single laboratory-confirmed outbreak has been reported, but no increase in cases of influenza-like illness.
Nationally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that flu activity nationwide has been quieter than usual this year.
“Flu activity is unusually low at this time but may increase in the coming months,” the CDC stated in its weekly FluView report. “An annual flu vaccine is the best way to protect against flu and its potentially serious complications.”