HIGH VAX NUMBERS AMONG AFRICAN AMERICANS

Kennysaint landry parish has seen a much higher rate of vaccinations among african americans compared to other parts of acadiana...i spoke with tim marks who tells me the biggest key...is education.

Sot: education is absolute priority for people to understand what it is, what went into the vaccine preparation to make it available to us.vo: the parish has seen the highest number of african americans receive at least one dose of the vaccine in acadiana at forty-three percent...marks says i's all about being hands-on.sot: first sight that we gave the vaccines was with holy ghost catholic church here in town.

Which is a predominantly african american church.

Really what w're trying to do is educate and promote but also go out into our community.

Vo: marks says having nurses sharing their own personal experience with the vaccine has aided in influencing others to also get vaccinated.

Sot: the clinicians being there, being able to educate, being able to say hey i got the vaccine too, this is my experience with it.

This is everything you can expect from it.vo: he says through educating and promoting...many have become advocates in their own way.sot: the grandparents who may have decided to go ahead and get the vaccine and then we receive a call from them, hey my daughter, my grandson, w've talked with them and shared our experience with it, shared the information with it.

W'd like to get them signed up too, can you help us do that?

Kenny marks also tells me none of their efforts would be possible without their frontline healthcare workers getting out in the community to educate and the citizens being open to learning and making informed decisions...live in- studio...kenny darr...news fifteen.

Thanks kenny...now with the pausing of the johnson & johnson vaccine...marks ensures that they have more than enough doses of the pfizer shot readily