SAN DIEGO — There was a long line wrapped around the Bethel AME Church in Logan Heights with many community members coming in droves to get either a first shot, a booster or a flu shot. Many are saying they felt comfortable coming there instead of going to the doctor’s office or a pharmacy just for the comfortability and convenience.
RJ Walz got his first two shots at Bethel AME Church of San Diego and wasted no time getting his flu and booster shots.
"I think this does a lot to build trust in it. People have concerns about getting the vaccine, but I think they're concerned about getting COVID are a lot more serious,” RJ Walz, who said his wife who works as a Kaiser hospitalist encouraged him to get his booster.
Bethel AME Church hosted the 4-hour vaccination event to encourage more Black San Diegans to get the shot.
“I know that there is some vaccine hesitancy, for those who are on the fence, you may have your reservations but do the research. We are doing all we can to get more people in the community vaccinated,” said Harvey Vaughn III, Pastor of Bethel AME Church of San Diego of 7 years.
Cardiologist and Bethel Church member Dr. Robert Gillespie says only about 50% of Black people in the U.S. have been vaccinated, but Black Americans are nearly three times as likely to be hospitalized due to COVID-19 as white people. Latinos have been vaccinated at much high rate than Blacks, but booster numbers are on the decline.
“Hispanics early on after many saw family members die in Southern California got vaccinated, but booster shots have not been on the uptake in the Hispanic or the African-American community,” said Dr. Gillespie of Sharp Rees-Stealy and the chief medical officer for Joint Initiatives for Racial Equity in Health (JIREH).
Dr. Gillespie said due to historical disparities in proper healthcare access for Black and brown communities, medical fears are preventing many from getting vaccinated at a critical time in the fight against COVID.
“It's important because we are trying to get our vaccination rates up, and we certainly want to also because of all the variants and everything to get our booster numbers up as well,” Gillespie said.
Samantha Williams, the JIREH founder and executive director said she is seeing an increase in boosters by a lot of community providers.
“We have COVID community talks to help inform people about what variants are out and what that means. We want to make sure we are standing in the gap to meet the needs,” said Williams, who is also a family nurse practitioner, who specializes in community.
Since 1887, Bethel AME has been the oldest African-American church in San Diego. Its pastor says boosting vaccination is a dire community need.
"COVID is real, we've lost several members, and I actually lost two preachers. Two have died from COVID and I lost two cousins to it,” Vaugh said.
At 91 years old, pushed in a wheelchair by her husband Stewart Crump, Wilma Crump was excited to get her third shot and hoped more people do the same.
“What are they afraid of? If you trust in God, turn it over. It will help everybody, and I am going to spread the word and spread the message and tell people don't wait. Get the booster now,” Crump said.
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