Mile High Medical Society Takes Aim to Vaccinate the African American Community
On Saturday February 13th, the Mile High Medical Society and the Colorado Black Health Collaborative joined forces to provide critical support to the New Hope Baptist Church COVID-19 vaccination event. In conjunction with the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center the initiative was designed to vaccinate elderly members (age 65 and older) of underserved communities and racial minorities in the greater Denver area.
Vaccines were administered successfully to 685 mostly African American and Hispanic/Latin American members of the community, who braved frigid temperatures and icy roads to receive the first shot Pfizer COVID-19 vaccinations. Trained volunteers from the UCHealth system administered shots at five vaccine stations in the Family Life Center of the New Hope Baptist Church. Mile High Medical Society members and students, as well as Colorado Black Health Collaborative members were valuable volunteers at the event. Dr. Johnny E. Johnson, President Mile High Medical Society, presided over the event, and provided medical expertise to patients. Dr. Terri Richardson served a multi-purpose role.
The distribution of a large number of vaccinations marks a successful effort to provide vaccinations to the African-American community, which is at particularly high risk for contracting and dying from the COVID-19 virus, compared to White and Asian populations. The COVID Racial Data Tracker, a collaboration between the COVID Tracking Project and the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research, has pooled together race and ethnicity data on COVID-19, that shows as of February 17, 2021, nationwide African Americans have died at 1.4 times the rate of White Americans. The CDC reports that racial disparities in health outcomes are driven by social determinants such as neighborhood conditions, educational attainment, economic stability, healthcare access, and social contexts. Further analysis shows that African Americans have received only 4% of the distributed vaccinations, despite being nearly 12% of the population, according to the CDC.
Adding to the challenge, African American communities have historically been understandably leery of healthcare initiatives and of the greater healthcare system, leading to vaccine hesitancy challenges that had to be overcome in order to gain the trust of African Americans and allow for vaccination. This initiative will decrease morbidity and mortality in the African American community from the COVID-19 virus.
This initiative for vaccine distribution marks the largest effort in Colorado to vaccinate African Americans through the African American Church community. It is unique, and is the first time that the African American community, through New Hope Baptist Church, was given the opportunity to direct a major health initiative, from its administration to its completion. Volunteers from the Mile High Medical Society and the Colorado Black Health Collaborative worked in conjunction with members of the New Hope Baptist Church to organize the mass vaccination event, by screening incoming patients according to the guidelines for the State of Colorado’s Vaccination program. This was also a great mentorship opportunity where our Mile High Medical Society students were able to witness first-hand and participate in serving the community. In these unprecedented times, the African American medical community was able to meet the challenge of health disparity in the administration of the COVID-19 vaccine in the midst of a pandemic.
On March 6th, the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine will be administered at New Hope Baptist Church. Although this will be the final dose of the vaccine, efforts will continue to achieve the goals of reaching herd immunity by vaccinating 70% of the African American population by December 2021. Mile High Medical Society will work to keep the community informed about the ongoing changes and trends related to the healthcare response to the COVID-19 virus. God-willing, we will be able to restore a sense of normalcy in this community, and in our lives.
