OMAHA, NEB. (KMTV) — "We want to encourage people to seek the vaccine, for themselves, and to protect themselves. It is very important that we have professionals be able to come on our program and give people answers they can rely on," said Karine Sokpoh, President of Midlands African Chamber.
According to Dr. Dele Davies at UNMC, the coronavirus has shown to be twice as deadly in Black communities compared to white communities, and more than twice that in the Hispanic population compared to the white population.
"We know that minority communities are more likely to live in overcrowded situations because they can't afford big homes. They may be living in places where it is very very hard to socially distance. We also know that a lot of the things that we were asking people to do at the beginning were not that easy to find. It was not easy to get masks. It was not as easy to get disinfectants. A lot of minority communities were also so-called front-line workers," said Davies.
Many of those minority communities are still trying to rebound from the pandemic, and all the difficulties the last year has brought.
"We see that those communities have been affected worse by the pandemic. Whether it's on the healthcare side, or even economically. So we believe it is important that we make this information available to them," said Sokpoh.
Davies advises business owners and their employees to get vaccinated.
"That's the best chance at protecting your workers, and protecting yourself is if everybody in your organization is vaccinated," said Davies.
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