A new study from Pitt and the Black Equity Coalition provides insights for boosting vaccine uptake in Black communities. Will providers and public health officials heed the advice as they roll out the latest COVID booster?
Update (10/12/23): Allegheny County announced on Thursday, Oct. 12 that it received its supply of COVID-19, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus [RSV] vaccines. Community members can receive all vaccines at the county’s Immunization Clinic by appointment or on a walk-in basis. Call 412-578-8062 to schedule an appointment.
The path to vaccine equity? Address 3 fears, study suggests.
Kristina Terrell took months to make up her mind before she received a COVID-19 vaccine.
Terrell, who is immunocompromised, said she needed the time to consult her doctor: Would her health condition keep her from mounting a robust immune response to the vaccine? What side effects might she experience? And how were drugmakers able to bring the vaccines to market so quickly?
Terrell is Black. Her doctor, who is white, welcomed her questions and patiently answered them.
“She’ll let me talk through something 100 times until she’s blue in the face answering them,” said the 38-year-old from Garfield, who supports a large family that includes her mother and children. “There’s no barrier in her relationship with me and I’ve always felt that she’s had my best interests [at heart], although she doesn’t look like me.”
Her doctor’s advice helped her make a decision: She took 10 family members to a mobile vaccine clinic at a community block party last year. They all received a first dose of the Pfizer vaccine and completed their primary vaccine series about a month later.
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