The Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis unveiled a public education campaign focusing on vaccine hesitancy in the African American community on Tuesday, June 6.
The campaign is in partnership with the National Urban League, the National Action Network and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The target audience is African Americans from age 16 to 55 with limited access to healthcare.
Michael McMillan, president and CEO of the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, spoke of the impact the pandemic has made on the black community.
“There is a health and an economic imperative to address toward the African American community with regards to the pandemic,” McMillan said.
“We are working with clergy members and medical workers to create safe vaccination sites in predominately African American areas in St. Louis where vaccination rates are the lowest.”
In the last 14 days, there have been 203 confirmed cases with two deaths, according to the St. Louis City government website.
“Our goal for this campaign is to ensure the community is equipped with all the information available about their vaccine options,” McMillan said.
COVID-19 positivity rate has declined from 7.8% to 6.1%, but a boost in vaccination rates could effectively change this number due to its effectiveness against the virus and the delta variant.
“A widespread ‘wait and see mindset’ could increase the infection rate of the delta variant of the virus,” Patricia Washington, Urban League executive vice president of communication, said.
The goal of the campaign is not to pressure residents to get the vaccine, but to bridge the education gap and provide information to alleviate hesitancy around the vaccine.
“Fifty percent of the population are not vaccinated because they want to know that the benefit outweighs the risk,” Washington said.
“We will address these concerns through a targeted campaign through social media, TV, PSA announcements and other media pathways.”
“We know we cannot do it alone, but we look forward to working with partners to get the messages to our intended audience,” Washington said.
Dr. Frederick Echols, interim health director of the St. Louis City Health Department, provided information on the Delta variant and the urgency of addressing hesitancy to prevent further outbreaks.
“We are starting to see an uptick in cases in zip codes for St. Louis South City and St. Louis County that have the lowest vaccination numbers,” Echols said. “We see the trajectory starting to repeat a pattern that we have seen over the last few months.”
The following zip codes, in both St. Louis County and the City, have the highest case rates: 63101, 63103, 63113, 63136, 63147, 63139, and 63119.
“The cases seem to be disproportionately affecting predominately black neighborhoods in the St. Louis area,” Echols said. “We are seeing a rising number in transmissions, but we need to stay ahead of it.”