By Ashley Moss
Staff Writer
The Black COVID-19 Task Force, led by city council member Casey Thomas met again Tuesday [January 26th], this time to discuss the latest developments in vaccine outreach and distribution for the area.
Local leaders said while vaccine hesitancy is going down, communities of color in Dallas still don’t know how or where to get it.
“There’s a lot of ambivalence in our community regarding the vaccine,” said Darryl Blair, who publishes Elite News in Dallas. “The work that has been done so far (to get the word out) has been diligent but it’s time to quit talking about it and do something about it,” he added, suggesting that volunteers start going door to door in high-risk Black and brown communities to help inform residents and encourage them to sign up.
Dallas County officials indicated that 21,574 doses of COVID-19 vaccine had been administered at the Fair Park mega-vaccine clinic, which started operations on Monday, January 11. At least 2,700 doses were administered at the site on Monday.
Local officials said the location was expected to be a way to reach communities of color in South Dallas, but recent state-level data showed that among more than 1.5 million Texans who had been inoculated with at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, African Americans made up less than eight percent. Hispanics accounted for 15 percent of the state’s inoculations.
“Who do you see in the building? Only white people,” said Mollie Belt of the Fair park site and publisher of the Dallas Examiner, geared to African-American audiences. Belt already received her first dose of the vaccine but said many more just don’t have the resources to figure out an already confusing system.
“We’re [Blacks] not getting the vaccine because we don’t want it, we just can’t get it,” she added.
Local officials said in the meeting Tuesday that the region utilizes a system with a constantly changing algorithm to ensure equity.
“Prioritization for the vaccine is dynamic based on a number of variables including current infection rate and risk in the area,” said Catherine Cuellar, who serves as Director Of Communications, Outreach & Marketing for the City of Dallas.
“We are sure that vaccine availability is going to ramp up but [area residents] may be waiting weeks or months more [before they can get a vaccine] and we have hundreds of thousands of people on the waiting list,” she added.
“We’ve got to have Black doctors and nurses urging people to get the vaccine,” said Kebran Alexander who chairs the healthcare committee for the Dallas branch NAACP. “I don’t have a medical background but we need professionals who do, to tell people what they need to do (to get vaccinated).”
“One of the most important things we can do right now is encourage people to continue signing up,” said council member Thomas.
Thomas is hosting a vaccine registration drive-up site at the Dallas Executive Airport on 5303 Challenger Drive in Dallas, on Saturday, January 30 from 2 pm to 6 pm.
Call 214-670-INFO or visit dallascityhall.com/covid19 for more information.
