\u201cI do not believe that we can turn and walk away and say, \u2018Hey, OK, we have COVID under control so now let\u2019s just pack up our tools and go home,\u2019\u201d said the Rev. James L. Patterson, CEO of the Partnership of African American Churches in Charleston, West Virginia. \u201cNo, we need to continue to deal with the health outcomes that people are suffering.\u201d<\/p>\n
The PAAC coordinates with other churches, Catholic Charities, the Salvation Army and several universities to provide vaccines at 15 clinic locations.<\/p>\n
Patterson said his organization has received $7.2 million in funding from federal, state and private sources to help provide vaccines and testing over the last three years. With the slowing of COVID-19 cases, he hopes the partnership, which has already been providing flu shots and glucose and blood pressure checks, will be able to expand to address wider health problems.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Community members receive vaccinations at a location organized by the Partnership of African American Churches in Charleston, West Virginia. Photo courtesy of PAAC<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\u201cCOVID is just the latest pandemic for people of color,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re always in a pandemic. Think about heart disease, diabetes. Those are at pandemic rates in communities of color.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over the last few years, African American congregations have provided outsized action on getting people tested and vaccinated.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur data shows that not that many congregations served as testing sites and\/or vaccination (locations) but almost half of the ones that did were African American,\u201d said Scott Thumma, principal investigator of the Exploring the Pandemic Impact on Congregations project led by the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, adding that \u201c14% of Black churches served as testing or vaccination site compared to 7% of other churches.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many African Americans were counting on houses of worship to answer the emergency.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen FDA made the announcement that the second bivalent was available to 65 plus and immunocompromised, we received phone calls and emails like \u2018Are you guys going to have it?\u2019 Fortunately we already had scheduled a clinic,\u201d said the Rev. Carolyn Cavaness,\u00a0pastor of Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, which received funding from her county for its work. \u201cThey knew that they could come right here to Bethel.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
An individual receives a vaccine at Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, in September 2022. Photo courtesy of Carolyn Cavaness<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\nCavaness said her church, which also received state support, helped 2,000 people get COVID-19 vaccinations during the pandemic. Dozens of other AME churches outside Philadelphia have been funded by immunization and pediatric organizations to provide vaccines and other health services.<\/p>\n
Bethel, which has inoculated about 200 people since January, is not slowing down, though the mix is expected to continue to shift to vaccinations for other maladies. It has scheduled five clinics to continue to provide vaccinations for the flu as well as COVID-19, shingles and TDAP, which prevents tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis, or whooping cough.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Dr. Brittani James in September 2021 in Chicago. Photo courtesy of IMAN<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\nOn Chicago\u2019s South Side, the Inner-City Muslim Action Network\u2019s health center has administered more than 3,400 COVID-19 vaccines and boosters.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the height of the pandemic, we were at one time vaccinating approximately 60 patients per day, but that number has decreased over time as more and more people were vaccinated,\u201d said Dabeer Hussain, the organization\u2019s clinical quality manager. \u201cThis year, in the past two months, we have given just over 20 vaccines.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the decrease in demand, Dr. Brittani James, the health center\u2019s medical director, continues to offer the vaccines as she serves those in the community that is predominantly Black and Latinx and about 10% to 15% Arab American.<\/p>\n
She recalled the days of the \u201cDelta surge\u201d \u2014 when the Delta variant became the most prevalent form of COVID-19 in late 2021 \u2014 when \u201cI had somebody swabbing over 200 people single-handedly,\u201d contrasting it with recent days when \u201cnumbers have kind of trickled down.\u201d<\/p>\n
But James said in a phone interview that she\u2019s aware of continuing need in a community where patients who have experienced health disparities can now receive individualized care.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Part of the Inner-City Muslim Action Network team pose together in Chicago in May 2021. Photo courtesy of IMAN<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\u201cIt\u2019s all about access,\u201d she said from the retrofitted recreational vehicle that serves as the Inner-City Muslim Action Network\u2019s mobile clinic. \u201cAs long as we can do it and there are people who want it, yeah, we\u2019re going to keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yusuf Ransome, a scholar at Yale School of Public Health, said his research has shown that some of the areas of New York City that had the highest rates of COVID-19 were areas predominated by African Americans. But his team also found that in the years just prior to the pandemic, many churches in those areas had shut down, depriving not only their members but the surrounding communities of medical support.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Yusuf Ransome. Photo by Robert A. Lisak<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\nRansome sees potential in the kinds of partnerships between African American churches and health professionals formed during the pandemic.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do think that there is room to think about what else can we do beyond the one-per-year kind of diabetes or hypertension screening,\u201d he said. \u201cCan we actually build something much more formal so that we don\u2019t have to wait till the next pandemic to figure out what to do?\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. Miriam Burnett, medical director of the African Methodist Episcopal Church\u2019s health commission, said her denomination is already operating from that perspective. She said her commission is looking ahead, with plans to help schoolchildren have all the other shots they need as they start school in the fall.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur plan is to never stop this program,\u201d Burnett said of AME churches like Cavaness\u2019 that continue to provide vaccinations. \u201cThe next pandemic is coming around the corner and we want to continue to have in place a mechanism that will allow us to adjust and adjust quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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