When Gov. Charlie Baker lifted COVID-19 restrictions May 29, masks slowly began to come off, indoor gatherings resumed and many businesses began easing off mask mandates.
The decision to lift the mandates came as vaccinations surged and COVID infection rates dropped. By Friday of last week, 57 percent of Massachusetts residents were fully vaccinated and just 121 new cases were reported, down from a high of more than 8,542 on January 2.
But these numbers don’t tell the whole story. In Boston, 65% of African Americans and 70% of Latinos have not been vaccinated.
On June 11, Boston Mayor Kim Janey joined members of the Black Boston COVID-19 Coalition to kick off a campaign to increase vaccination rates in the city’s Black and Latino communities. Joining coalition members who wore T-shirts with the message “Choose life,” Janey said the message sums up the choice facing people in Black and Latino communities.
“We can choose vaccine and life, or we can risk getting COVID,” she said. “And we know that COVID-19 has disproportionately impacted our community with confirmed cases, and certainly with deaths. We’ve seen that play out not just in communities of color, generally speaking, but specifically the Black community and the Latino community.”
Janey and the coalition members spoke in Grove Hall in front of a newly unveiled billboard urging people to get vaccinated. Coalition members announced a new push to broaden the accessibility of vaccines with a mobile vaccination van that will visit health centers and churches, along with broadcast and social media advertising.
Coalition member Leonard Lee said the group’s past efforts, which have included special vaccination days at the Reggie Lewis center that featured an all-African American team of doctors and nurses, made a dramatic difference.
“It was night and day,” he said. “You watched people coming out of the Reggie Lewis Center in tears. Having truth-tellers who look like them is really, really important.”
The group’s efforts have helped Massachusetts reach more people of color. Earlier this year, the state ranked 42nd in vaccination rates for African Americans. Now it has the second highest rate in the nation. But coalition members point out that they have a long way to go.
“We are making progress,” said the Rev. Liz Walker, a member of the governor’s COVID-19 Vaccine Advisory Group. “But as has been said here, we cannot claim victory for anybody until we can claim victory for everybody, and we’re not there yet.”
Walker noted that while the death rates are low, 82% of COVID deaths occurring across the nation now are in Black communities.
Coalition members pointed to a number of factors as to why Blacks and Latinos have had such low vaccination rates. Elmer Freeman, executive director of the Center for Community Health Education Research and Service, pointed to vaccine hesitancy.
“Most Black people don’t like the way they have been treated by the health care system,” he said. “There are historical reasons.”
Walker urged people to encourage their friends and neighbors to get the vaccine.
“We have to tell our neighbors why they have to get this, not because of any other reason than that we love them,” she said. “And because I love you, I want you to be around.”
