In an effort to keep the community informed about the COVID-19 vaccine and dispel myths or fears of the vaccine, the medical school’s Office of Health Equity and Community Affairs partnered with the Northside Ministerial Alliance January 21 to host a community forum.
The 90-minute event, called WMed Health Community Conversations on the COVID-19 Vaccine, was live streamed on Facebook and YouTube from Mount Zion Baptist Church in Kalamazoo.
Several WMed physicians represented the medical school on the panel, including Thomas Flynn, MD, chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases in the medical school’s Department of Medicine, Cheryl Dickson, MD, MPH, the medical school’s associate dean for Health Equity and Community Affairs, and Sylvia Linares, MD, an assistant professor in the medical school’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
William Nettleton, MD, MPH, medical director of Kalamazoo County Health and Community Services Department and assistant professor in WMed's Department of Family and Community Medicine, and several physicians and other representatives of healthcare agencies throughout the county joined the WMed panelists to inform the community about the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine and its supply in Kalamazoo County.
Dr. Dickson said the goal of the panel was to help community members make an informed decision about when and where to get the vaccine.
“What we really want is for our community to be protected, and in order to get that protection, one of the ways to do it best is to get the vaccine,” Dr. Dickson said.
“We want our community to be safe, we want to prevent this disease and decrease the deaths we’re seeing from COVID-19 infection.”
Watch the full panel below: