60 Black Healthcare Providers Are Urging Black Americans to Get Vaccinated
Many black and low-income communities say they are hesitant to get vaccinated against COVID-19 as misinformation continues to spread online. Studies show black Americans are far less likely to get their shot than other racial groups. To encourage more African Americans to sign up for their shots, 60 of the country’s most prominent black doctors and healthcare professionals are speaking up.
Spreading the Word
The 60 influential care providers addressed the struggle to get more black Americans vaccinated in a recent op-ed in the
New York Times. Led by Thomas A. LaVeist, a medical sociologist and the dean of the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine at Tulane University, and Georges C. Benjamin, a physician and the executive director of the American Public Health Association, the group was made up of doctors, nurses, and scientists from around the U.S.
President Biden is raising hopes that he will sharply scale up rapid at-home COVID-19 tests to help control the pandemic, but advocates say far more needs to be done beyond the administration’s early moves.
The state has been struggling to vaccinate the roughly 3.2 million residents 65 and older and front-line essential workers who are already eligible under phase 1b of the vaccine distribution plan.