Statistics show that nearly 40 million adults remain unvaccinated for COVID. The issue isn’t a lack of vaccines. In areas of the country such as Kansas City’s eastside, a section of neighborhoods among the city’s most socially vulnerable, it’s a matter of awareness and meeting the community where it’s at.
Backed by nearly $5 million in CARES Act funding through the Jackson County Legislature, Jannette Berkley-Patton, Ph.D., professor of biomedical and health informatics and director of the University of Missouri-Kansas City Health Equity Institute, took up the challenge to bring the message as well as the needed vaccines to Kansas City communities with some of the lowest vaccination rates in the city.
A published article on Slate, a daily web magazine and podcast network, chronicles Berkley-Patton’s efforts to launch Our Healthy Kansas City Eastside, a program that has nearly doubled the original goal of vaccinating 5,000 people. Visit the web site here to read the full story.