CDC Partners With Black Churches For COVID-19 Outreach

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention awarded $3 million to the Atlanta-based Conference of National Black Churches as part of the CDC’s larger $18 million effort to assist community organizations.

As the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports, the effort may also result from a request by the Rev. W. Franklyn Richardson, the chairman of the CNBC. “Black people have not always gotten the greatest attention by the CDC. I said that to them, and they owned it and wanted to correct it.”

Richardson, who is seeking more in-depth conversations about overall health, continued, “Pastors are trusted messengers. Pastors are with people in the most intimate times of crisis—in sickness, in death…Churches are trusted spaces. Not only did they provide vaccinations during the crisis, they served tons of food to families in need.”

The CNBC is an umbrella organization that includes the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, Church of God in Christ (COGIC), the National Baptist Convention USA, and the Progressive National Baptist Convention. The organization represents 31,000 congregations nationally and 3,000 congregations in Georgia. 

CNBC has received funds from the CDC in the past for its efforts to vaccinate the communities in which its member churches reside. This latest round is part of the CDC’s Bridge Access Program, which gives free COVID-19 vaccines to adults without health insurance and adults whose insurance does not cover the vaccine. The program will allow for free vaccines through the end of 2024. 

According to the NAACP and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the COVID-19 pandemic has had a disproportionate effect on Black Americans, healthwise and economically. A 2021 Pew Research study found that 64% of regular worship attendees at historically Black churches said that their pastor encouraged them to get at least one shot of the COVID-19 vaccine. That number is almost 25% higher than the percentage of other religions, which indicated that 39% of their clergy did the same. 

A 2021 study from the Loma Linda University School of Pharmacy revealed that the partnership between Black faith leaders, public health officials, and Black medical professionals increased COVID-19 vaccinations in the Black community in San Bernardino County, California.

As Jacinda Abdul-Mutakabbir, an assistant professor at Loma Linda University School of Pharmacy and the primary author of the paper, said in a press release, “The U.S. is considered a highly religious nation, and prayer, as well as the promotion of medical treatment by religious leaders, has been historically important in establishing trust in healthcare among Black Americans. The pastors’ leadership was integral to the success of this initiative, as they are well acquainted and had established direct communication with individuals in the Black community.”

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