Campaign seeks to reach Black community as vaccination rate lags

Black residents are getting vaccinated at a rate well below the expectation in Clark County, leading concerned officials on Monday to launch an outreach campaign to improve the lagging numbers.

In Southern Nevada, Black people make up about 12.5 percent of the population, yet only 5.7 percent have received a first dose of a coronavirus vaccine as of Friday, according to Southern Nevada Health District Health Officer Dr. Fermin Leguen.

The rate is only about half of what officials would expect based on the share of Black residents living in the county. It is a population that has been struck particularly hard by the pandemic, which has merely “exposed and exacerbated existing health disparities,” according to Clark County Commissioner William McCurdy II.

To address the disproportionate rate of immunization, officials unveiled the “Back to Life” vaccine awareness campaign, encouraging Black residents to get their shots when eligible.

The campaign also is aimed at identifying barriers that prevent vaccinations in some of Southern Nevada’s hardest-hit areas, including socioeconomic factors that stifle access to distribution sites and a mistrust of the health care system rooted in history.

The campaign will roll out billboards, public service announcements, fliers and social media posts, relying on trusted community influencers such as religious and medical leaders to ease any longstanding fears. The effort will be aided by the newly formed Southern Nevada Black Coalition, a group of four dozen local leaders including elected officials, such as Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford, and medical professionals.

Targeted effort’s message: Vaccine safe

“The name of our campaign says it all: Let’s get back to life,” McCurdy said during an afternoon news conference. “We want to return to our normal course of action in our everyday lives.”

To do so, officials recognize it will require the same concerted effort to reach the community as the “Está en Tus Manos” (“It’s In Your Hands”) initiative did to improve testing and vaccination rates among the Hispanic population.

“As long as we are intentional within our outreach to the most impacted communities of this COVID-19 virus, we will continue to see our numbers increase in terms of vaccination rates,” McCurdy said.

North Las Vegas Councilwoman Pamela Goynes-Brown acknowledged being “extremely hesitant” to get a vaccine, but she underscored that it is safe and that she was fine after receiving it.

Local business owner Karla Washington, who was diagnosed with COVID-19 in December — requiring two trips to the hospital after taking “a turn for the worst” — urged people to do the research themselves.

“Don’t assume you know from hearsay,” she said, adding that she was eagerly awaiting a second shot.

‘We are not done yet’

Officials say that the campaign will extend to public housing and that Uber has volunteered to give rides to distribution sites in the 10 hardest-hit ZIP codes in the county.

Vaccination rates will be one indicator used as local officials finalize a plan for regaining local control from the state to combat the virus by May 1.

The recovery from the pandemic continues to trend upward. And Clark County Commission Chairwoman Marilyn Kirkpatrick noted that the test positivity rate has fallen in the county from 22 percent to about 5 percent since December, signaling that progress is real.

“But we are not done yet,” she said. “And there is a light at the end of the tunnel, but we have a little more work to do.”

Contact Shea Johnson at sjohnson@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0272. Follow @Shea_LVRJ on Twitter.