BATON ROUGE, La. — Flossie West was not at all interested in taking the coronavirus vaccine.
Carla Brown, the nurse overseeing her care, was determined to change her mind.
Ms. West, 73, has ovarian cancer, congestive heart failure and breathing difficulties — conditions that place her at grave risk should she contract the virus. As it is, Covid-19 has killed far too many of her neighbors in Mid-City, a low-rise, predominantly Black community that sprawls to the east of the Louisiana state capital.
But Ms. West’s skepticism about the new vaccines overshadowed her fears of Covid-19. “I’m just not interested because everyone tells me the virus is a hoax,” Ms. West said. “And besides, that shot is going to make me more sick than I already am.”