IL launches $10 million campaign aimed at fighting COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in Black, Latino
Illinois launches $10 million campaign aimed at countering COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in Black, Latino communities
In an effort to reach Black and Latino communities that have been hard hit by the coronavirus but have lagged behind the rest of the state on vaccinations, Illinois on Friday launched a $10 million public awareness campaign to combat vaccine hesitancy.
The multimedia campaign was announced as the total number of vaccinations administered in Illinois passed 3 million, with more than 1 million residents now fully immunized with two shots.
Speaking outside Family Christian Health Center in south suburban Harvey, Gov. J.B. Pritzker framed vaccine education as an issue of equity, a notion he and other state officials have hammered repeatedly amid early distribution data that showed significant disparities between white and Black and Hispanic residents in vaccinations.
Among our most important goals is to get the vaccines to Black and brown people, and to more remote areas of our state to those who have too often been denied access to health care, Pritzker said.
As of Friday, 68.7% of doses statewide have gone to white residents, while 8.6% have gone to Latino residents and nearly 8% have gone to Black residents, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/coronavirus/ct-coronavirus-vaccine-hesitancy-campaign-20210305-3yj4onsoavcytdgx5253c4lifm-story.html