While Black Minnesotans Are Suffering Disproportionately From COVID, Many Are Hesitant To Get The Vaccine

The Citizen

5 years ago

cbsoptanon.onScriptsReady(function(cmp){cmp.ot.targetingAllowed(function(a){if(a) AnvatoPlayer(“p0”).init({“mcp”:”cbs”,”width”:”100%”,”height”:”100%”,”video”:”5864158″,”autoplay”:false,”titleVisible”:false,”accessKey”:”5VD6Eyd6djewbCmNwBFnsJj17YAvGRwl”,”accessControl”:{“preview”:false},”pInstance”:”p0″,”plugins”:{“heartbeat”:{“account”:”cbslocal-global-unified”,”publisherId”:”cbslocal”,”jobId”:”sc_va”,”marketingCloudId”:”823BA0335567497F7F000101@AdobeOrg”,”trackingServer”:”cbsdigitalmedia.hb.omtrdc.net”,”customTrackingServer”:”cbsdigitalmedia.d1.sc.omtrdc.net”,”chapterTracking”:false,”version”:”1.5″,”customMetadata”:{“video”:{“cbs_market”:”minnesota.cbslocal.com”,”cbs_platform”:”desktop”}}},”comscore”:{“clientId”:”3000023″,”c3″:”Minnesota.cbslocal.com”},”dfp”:{“clientSide”:{“adTagUrl”:”http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/ads?sz=2×2&iu=/4128/cbs.minn&ciu_szs&impl=s&gdfp_req=1&env=vp&output=xml_vast2&unviewed_position_start=1&url=[referrer_url]&description_url=[description_url]&correlator=[timestamp]”,”keyValues”:{“categories”:”[[CATEGORIES]]”,”program”:”[[PROGRAM_NAME]]”,”siteSection”:”video-default”}}},”moat”:{“clientSide”:{“partnerCode”:”cbslocalanvatovideo181732609431″}}},”token”:”default”,”expectPreroll”:true,”expectPrerollTimeout”:5});});});

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — The COVID-19 pandemic continues to hit communities of color the hardest, particularly the Black community, which has extremely low vaccination figures and disproportionately high hospitalization rates.

There are a number of reasons people in the Black community are hesitant to get the vaccine, even as cases are surging with the spread of the Delta variant. The reasons include suspicion of government, the history of experiments performed on Black people in the United States, and misinformation about the vaccine.

Many in the community have chosen not to get the shots, and the numbers associated with that choice are alarming to Minnesota health officials.

According to state statistics, Black Minnesotans make up about 7% of the state’s toatl population but account for 9% of COVID-19 cases and 12% of hospitalizations and ICU stays.

Shirlyn McNeil LaChappelle, a nurse practitioner, hopes these numbers can serve as a wake up call, as she has been working nonstop trying to educate her community about the vaccine and the importance of getting it.

“Do you know that it’s killing people?” she said. “Do you know that it’s coming back again, and that this variant is…more infectious than the previous one?”

LaChappelle noted that Minnesotans can now get a $100 reward for getting vaccinated. She hopes that this incentive nudges those unvaccinated in the Black community to get the shot. She also believes a federal education campaign involving barbershops and beauty salons will help inform the community.

According to the latest vaccine statistics, only 50% of eligible Black Minnesotans have received at least one vaccine shot, a figure below the percentages for white (64%), Hispanic (57%) and Asian Minnesotans (73%).

More On WCCO.com: