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State efforts to address African-Americans' vaccine hesitancy are starting to pay off. But so is the desire of many Black South Carolinians to just get back to life.
A few months ago, just before the COVID-19 vaccine hit the first upper arms, African-Americans were wrapped up in a whole set of problems – they were disproportionately affected by the worst of the virus; they were the targets of terrifying misinformation; and they carried a longstanding, deep-rooted mistrust of doctors, scientists, and vaccinations of any kind.
A lot has changed in two or three short months. While the rates of vaccine shots entering African-American arms does remain lower than that for white arms, about 285,000 shots administered in South Carolina (as of April 21) have gone to African-Americans, according to data from the state Department of Health and Environmental Control. That’s roughly 20 percent of the state’s Black population; about 28 percent of South Carolina’s white population has been vaccinated at least once.