Wichita Black Alliance works to build trust, combat coronavirus misinformation

The Wichita Black Alliance gave out more than 7,000 masks Wednesday afternoon as part of an initiative to help Wichita’s Black community survive the coronavirus pandemic.

A key aspect of the initiative will be building trust in the health care system in the Black community and providing additional resources to a high-risk population.

The group is launching a “Facts Over Fear” marketing campaign to overcome misinformation about COVID-19 and encourage responsible public health practices in the Black community, which has been harder-hit by the pandemic nationally than other races due to a variety of factors including pre-pandemic disparities in access to health care and other resources.

It’s part of a $532,500 CARES Act grant the Black Alliance received through Sedgwick County to provide IT support, food assistance and mental health support to the Black community.

One hurdle will be convincing Black Wichitans that a COVID-19 vaccine is safe. A study by the COVID Collaborative, the NAACP and UnidosUS found only 14% of Black respondents said they trust a vaccine will be safe and 18% said they mostly or completely trust that a COVID-19 vaccine will be effective.

“This whole campaign that the Black Alliance has been a part of has been set out to talk about the seriousness of this pandemic, the right safety protocols and procedures and hopefully encourages residents to make health and safe choices and education people about the facts,” Wichita City Council member Brandon Johnson said.

Some of the facts of the pandemic were laid out by at a news conference Wednesday by Kaylee Hervey, epidemiology program manager for the Sedgwick County Health Department.

“Case numbers in November are the highest we have seen since COVID-19 was discovered,” Hervey said. “Most people are not reporting being a close contact of a case, meaning they were likely exposed through general community disease spread.”

She said Black Sedgwick County residents are tested at a similar rate to white residents but test positive at a higher rate.

Sedgwick County reports cases by race in three categories: white, Black and other. The races of around 31% of all cases in Sedgwick County are listed as “unknown.”

“When you look at specific populations, the racial group with the highest case rate in Sedgwick County and Kansas, it’s people who identify as ‘other races,’” she said. “However, the highest case rate nationally is in the Black or African American community.”

The Sedgwick County Health Department does not report hospitalizations or deaths by race, claiming 193 deaths is too few to provide a breakdown by race. Nationally, Black or African American residents are 1.4 times more likely to catch the virus, 3.7 times more likely to end up in the hospital and 2.8 times more likely to die than the national average, according to the CDC.

One challenge, not only for the Black community, has been combating misinformation and political conspiracies about public health orders and vaccinations. To overcome a growing level of distrust, Sedgwick County approved a $306,750 grant in October to the Black Alliance for the marketing campaign.

Ti’Juana Hardwell, project manager for the Black Alliance, said she wants to cut through the political divide by appealing to Wichitans’ fondness of small businesses.

“Through everything that’s going on with COVID, we see people being on opposite sides of the fence about mask wearing,” she said. “But one thing that Wichitans do better than anyone is we support local businesses. ... When we cannot get a handle on COVID, our businesses suffer.”

Lavonta Williams, a former City Council member and a member of the African American Council of Elders, said the Elders have set up a text message alert system. By sending a text message to 484848, Wichitans may sign up for notifications.

“So whenever the Council of Elders think that there is some information that needs to go out, it is like an alert system, and they will receive an alert message,” she said. “And that’s because we want everybody to know if there’s food to be given away at one particular area, then you can go to that area.”

With the release of a vaccine, Sedgwick County Commissioner Lacey Cruse said people are starting to get restless but shouldn’t let their guard down. She asked for patience. Kansas may begin receiving doses in two weeks if the Food and Drug Administration grants emergency approval to one or both of the leading vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna.

The first shots go to doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers caring for COVID-19 patients. Nursing home residents and other frontline workers will soon follow.

“I understand that people really want to understand it, they want to get it, but I would ask everyone to be very patient with how it’s going to be distributed,” Cruse said. “This is a moving target, and I know that we all want to get back to normal but I would ask for everyone to keep your patience — as hard as that might be right now.”

This story was originally published December 9, 2020 at 4:50 PM.