INDIANAPOLIS — Millions of Hoosiers have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and now an Indianapolis pastor and his church are doing their part to make sure Hoosiers in Indy's predominantly Black neighborhoods have access to the vaccine too.
"People kept being very skeptical about the acceptability but I said I don't want to yet say that we have an acceptability problem, I think we have an accessibility problem. We need to take the vaccine to where people are," Moore said.
Pastor Clarence Moore of New Era Church has been proactive in trying to use his west side church as a vaccination location. After partnering with the Marion County Health Department and medical professionals who are members of the church, New Era Church will vaccinate 50 people with the Moderna vaccine this weekend. He said while appointments for this weekend didn't take long to fill up, it is still a challenge getting people to understand the vaccine is safe.
"They didn't trust the fact that the title was, "Warp Speed," Moore explained. "They felt like the scientists didn't do their due diligence of making sure the vaccine was safe."
Hoosiers who choose to show up this weekend will return in four weeks to get their second shot. Between now and then, Moore, who is already fully vaccinated, is hoping to get additional doses of the vaccine and use his church as a vaccine site every weekend in April.
The longtime pastor believes if Black Hoosiers have adequate access to the vaccine and the correct information about it, we could even a score that shows more Black people getting COVID-19 and less of the vaccine.
"I think if we get the right people to talk about the efficacy and get accessible to that information, I think that we could improve the acceptability," Moore said.
