Teenagers and their parents at a vaccination event at a Bronx charter school on May 17, 2021. Health officials are trying to reach out to young nonwhite New Yorkers.
All three situations reflect a trend that has become a major concern to public health experts: Young Black New Yorkers are especially reluctant to get vaccinated, even as the delta variant is rapidly spreading among their ranks. City data shows that only 27% of Black New Yorkers ages 18 to 44 are fully vaccinated, compared with 48% of Latino residents and 52% of white residents in that age group.
The fact that the virus hit Black neighborhoods disproportionately during the first wave made many extra wary of getting vaccinated: They feel that they have survived the worst and that the health authorities had failed to help them then.“If it’s going to be mandatory to work, I’ll have no choice,” said Kaleshia Sostre, a 27-year-old from Red Hook, Brooklyn, who teaches parenting classes to young mothers.
But lately the city has begun to reach out more to young New Yorkers, offering $100 payments for first doses, urging students to get vaccinated before school starts and nudging employers to pressure their employees to get vaccinated. He said he would rather put his trust in masks and hand sanitizer — which he credits with keeping him healthy as he worked at construction sites throughout the pandemic — than a new vaccine that the government is pushing people to take. “They came out with one so fast for COVID, and now they want to pay you to take it,” he said. “It seems fishy.”
“I’m out of compliance,” said Shavuo-Goodwin, who is Black and lives in the South Bronx. “I have done heaps of research looking for things that would make me confident and comfortable getting the vaccine, but honestly I haven’t.” Many Black New Yorkers struggled to make sense of why their community suffered so in that first wave.
One of the three vaccines — the single-shot Johnson & Johnson — had been directed to Black and Latino communities, among other places. It required only one shot — not two like the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines — and had less onerous refrigeration requirements. It struck many government officials as the obvious choice for the pop-up vaccine clinics at public housing projects and churches that were central to the government’s plan for vaccinating minority neighborhoods.
Blacks like Harris have been turning blacks away from the rest of America for decades- blame them.
glad to see this covered. Most media coverage tends to be a bluster campaign focusing on the R/D thing.
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