Out to sway vaccine skeptics

Alan Tan has heard the misinformation from members of his own family. That getting vaccinated against COVID-19 will lead you to get the virus, among other myths “percolating” on the internet.

The problem is affecting people of all backgrounds in Connecticut and Tan is part of a sweeping, statewide effort to reach ethnic and racial communities rife with hesitancy.

He sees challenges unique to the Asian

American Community.

“Culturally, they put their heads down and work hard, there’s distrust in the government that comes from the places they originated from,” said Tan, co-chairman of the Connecticut Commission on Women, Children, Seniors, Equity and Opportunity.

On top of that, they speak many different languages: the more common Chinese, Korean, Japanese and the less frequent Thai and Laotian.

So Tan, who is ethnically Chinese, is working with the state to translate public health literature that can then be shared on Facebook groups, in WhatsApp chats and via other social media platforms to counter the misinformation.

“When you have the Asian American community without a trusted connection, the misinformation spreads like wildfire,” Tan said. “How do you counter that?”

By now, with a COVID-19 shot available to anyone 16 and older who wants one, a picture has emerged of those in Connecticut who’ve yet to get vaccinated: younger adults, urban populations, communities of color, and even those who supported the reelection of President Donald Trump.

Behind-the-scenes, the state has hired consultants to find and train “trusted messengers,” people living in the communities where vaccination rates lag or there’s reticence — and arm them with the tools needed to convince their peers to roll up their sleeves.

Personal appeals

In the last several months, more than 145 organizations and 500-plus participants have taken the training, targeting a wide range of populations from the deaf community to native Spanish speakers.

The trusted messengers go door-to door in their neighborhoods, organize pop-up vaccine clinics in shopping plazas, and put up flyers with vaccine information in areas where people are known to congregate, all to help push the state toward its goal of herd immunity.

They’re told to keep it personal. Share their story of why they chose to get vaccinated. Maybe they had concerns, too. Then follow the personal with the data – how effective the vaccines are, the makeup of the clinical trial participants, the potential side effects and what they mean.

Above all, the message is this: The vaccine will protect you from getting COVID-19 and it will help keep those you know and love safe, too.

Tan is working with other community leaders and the West Hartford-Bloomfield Health District to organize a pop-up vaccine clinic in Shield Street Plaza Shopping Center in West Hartford, which houses A Dong Supermarket, a popular spot for local Asian Americans to get their groceries.

Translators will be on hand as trusted messengers and medical professionals provide vaccine information, and address any concerns or questions, as people come and go from the supermarket. The hope is that they will convince some to get vaccinated on the spot.

Tan says efforts are also underway to put flyers with vaccine info in differing Asian languages in Asian supermarkets around the state.

The pop-up in front of A Dong will be the pilot for what Tan and others hope will be a successful model they can bring to other parts of the state. The next target is eastern Connecticut where a large portion of Chinese residents live. Chinese restaurants in the Norwich area with big parking lots have expressed interest in hosting a clinic, Tan said.

Vax-a-ton in a Black community

Two days after Josie Wright, president of the Epsilon Omicron Omega chapter of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., attended a trusted messenger training put on for members of historically black fraternities and sororities, she volunteered at a 24-hour vax-a-thon on Albany Avenue in Hartford.

Two people there asked how scientists were able to develop the vaccines so quickly — a question she could answer after a briefing by Dr. Reginald Eadie, the president of Trinity Health of New England, during the trusted messenger forum.

“We have been equipped with enough knowledge to break down some of the complex information that has been delivered that not everyone understands,” Wright said.

The historically black fraternities and sororities in Connecticut are planning a series of upcoming forums and conversations, with Black physicians on hand as experts, and to go door-to-door this summer.

Wright said her chapter tucked COVID-19 fact sheets inside 150 children’s books donated to the Women’s League Child Development Center in Hartford, for the children’s parents to read, and has put out social media blasts about the vaccine to its networks.

Nyema Pinkney Cranford, vice president of the Epsilon Omicron Omega chapter, who also went through the trusted messenger training, said it’s crucial to get people to be transparent about what their “obstacles” are to getting vaccinated, whether it be lack of access to internet or transportation, fear or misinformation.

In her conversations, Cranford reminds them that contracting COVID-19 would be much worse than any potential side effects from the vaccine as Black residents died at a much higher rate than their peers.

“I know families where both the wives and husbands are gone,” she said.

You can’t convince everyone

Unidad Latina en Acción in New Haven was among the first community organizations to take part in the trusted messenger program, which was conducted in both Spanish and English and included members of the Latino community.

Volunteers have knocked on thousands of doors in the Fair Haven neighborhood, among the hardest hit by the pandemic, as part of an effort started by ULA and other community organizations there. The goal was to get the word out that it’s free and easy to get the vaccine, you don’t have to be a U.S. citizen, and to sign people up for an appointment.

The Vaccinate Fair Haven effort, which has spanned several weeks, resulted in 660 appointments and 292 people vaccinated at same-day walk-up clinics.

Of all ULA’s efforts, which also included virtual forums with Latina medical professionals, the door knocking has been the most successful, said Megan Fountain, coordinator of advocacy and partnerships. ULA has also helped get people rides to their vaccine appointments and get shots to the homebound.

Sixty-six percent of Fair Haven residents are Latino and 17 percent are Black. Both groups have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic and lag in vaccinations.

While 61 percent of the state’s eligible non-Hispanic white population have received at least one dose, 36 percent of people identified as Black have received at least one shot, state data released Thursday shows.

Among Hispanic people, the number is a little over 42 percent, while about 58 percent of people identified as Asian and Pacific Islanders have received at least their first dose.

Twelve percent of those with one dose are of unknown race, so the figures by race and ethnicity are somewhat skewed but the pattern is clear.

“You’re not going to be able to convince everyone,” Dr. Sosena Kebede, chief medical officer at Hartford-based Community Health Services Inc. told attendees at a trusted messenger forum last month.

“Where should our energy be? I can tell you from having this conversation multiple times a day with my patients, there are some people, who you’re not going to change their minds because they have very set goals as to why they won’t do it,” she said.

Instead, they should focus their attention on those who are on the fence and might have questions or just want to wait a little while longer.

“Sometimes you don’t know what questions somebody might have inside of them, that if you would just answer that question then they would change their mind,” she said.