To improve COVID-19 vaccine access, Black faith leaders opened up a Tacoma church
They fanned out and knocked on doors. That’s what it was going to take.
When the Tacoma Ministerial Alliance began planning a pop-up COVID-19 vaccination event at Shiloh Baptist Church on Hilltop, they knew they would need to go above and beyond to reach those who needed it most.
On Monday, roughly 300 people cycled through the church and received the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine, according to the Rev. Gregory Christopher, pastor of Shiloh Baptist and president of the Ministerial Alliance. By midday, he was already describing it as a smashing success and a blessing by God.
When I found Christopher, he was working the halls of the church, checking in with long-time parishioners and greeting new faces. The Alliance had been working feverishly toward this day for the last week, he later explained, aiming to give COVID-19 access to anyone who is eligible — and specifically those in Tacoma who had struggled to receive it so far.
As a Black pastor working in a historically Black community, Christopher said he knew that many eligible people — particularly those who are older — lack the guidance or internet access to navigate the system. He also knew that some members of the community were hesitant and even fearful of the shot, he said, which was something he believed the church could help to overcome.
That’s why the Ministerial Alliance partnered with Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department to host the vaccination clinic at Shiloh Baptist, Christopher said.
It’s also why a small team of volunteers had made its way through Tacoma on foot in the days leading up to the event, he explained.
Focusing on Hilltop and areas of South Tacoma and the Eastside, Christopher said, the team visited nearly 150 front porches, signing people up, getting the word out and making personal invitations to get vaccinated at the well-known local church. He believes it helped.
“We felt like people coming here will give us the best chance of them getting vaccinated because they know that this church has always stood for the community,” Christopher said. “It was a community effort because we only had a week to do it.”
Since the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, the potential — and reality — of racial disparities have been top of mind for many, including Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department. Nationally and locally, the virus has hit communities of color harder, while the vaccine has often felt most accessible to those with the most means.
Bridging that divide, Christopher said, will require efforts like what happened Monday on Hilltop. He’s hoping the event is the first of many.
“It’s like the old proverb, ‘It takes a village,’” Christopher explained.
Sandra Daniels received her COVID-19 vaccination mid-morning Monday. As the 60-year-old exited Shiloh Baptist, she said she was glad to see a resource like this specifically targeting her community.
Daniels, who is Black, said that many of her neighbors and friends have struggled to sign up to receive the vaccine. As it has become more widely available, she said, she has personally helped many people figure out how to get vaccinated, including referring eight people to Monday’s event.
While Daniels said her daughter, Kiara — who is running for City Council — connected her to necessary resources and information, she knows not everyone has someone to help them.
Even with her daughter’s assistance, Daniels said, she originally had reservations about rolling up her sleeve, in part because of a long history of mistrust within the Black community.
Like several people interviewed by The News Tribune during Monday’s event, Daniels said that some health care providers treat people unfairly based on race and ethnicity, and the quality of care Black patients receive is often lacking. It’s one reason she’s avoided flu vaccines over the years, she said.
Ultimately, Daniels said, she decided to receive the Johnson & Johnson vaccine on Monday because she knows widespread immunity will help us all get back to normal.
Daniels also said that seeing a pop-up clinic on Hilltop — organized by its respected religious leaders — helped ease her apprehension.
“It took me a while to come to the conclusion that I needed to get it done,” Daniels said.
According to the Rev. Prentis Johnson, pastor at Greater Christ Temple Church in Tacoma, mistrust of health care systems is just one barrier potentially preventing Black Americans from being vaccinated for COVID-19, but it can’t be discounted.
Johnson noted that research has shown a higher rate of vaccine hesitancy in the Black community, and he believes that the lasting trauma of things like the Tuskegee study — which unethically researched untreated syphilis in Black men for decades — is partly to blame.
As a longstanding member of the Tacoma Ministerial Alliance’s leadership, Johnson said that the organization has a natural role to play helping to keep people healthy.
“We felt a need as a ministerial organization to support the community. We want to make sure that our people are safe,” Johnson said. “The bottom line is we want our community to get better, and we want our people to live. We have had so many people who have died because of this virus”.
Monday’s vaccination pop-up was not a first for Leah Ford, who works as a health promotion coordinator for Tacoma-Pierce County Department of Health and specifically focuses on the African American community. But it was unique, she said.
Ford said she loves that Monday’s vaccination event was on Hilltop, and specifically at Shiloh Baptist, which she described as a Tacoma landmark.
If Tacoma and Pierce County hope to effectively eliminate the barriers to the vaccine for people of color, events like this are exactly what the doctor ordered, she believes.
“It’s been super diverse, which is really good to see,” Ford said of Monday’s turnout at Shiloh Baptist.
“The more sites that we have like this, the more we can get to that community immunity and get back to the regular activities we have all really been missing.”
