Vaccine clinic aims to bridge racial divide in Kalamazoo

The Kalamazoo County Department of Health and Community Services (KDHCS) is planning a vaccination clinic on Monday. The location will hopefully mean the vaccine gets out to a lot of people who may otherwise be overlooked.

The clinic will be held at Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Kalamazoo’s Northside neighborhood. That area is predominantly Black. It’s a sign that health officials are proactively reaching out to minority communities.

The Michigan health department doesn’t report much demographic information about who is receiving doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, but anecdotal data suggests Black people and other minority communities are much less likely to be vaccinated than white people.

Mt. Zion Pastor Addis Moore told WOOD TV 8 that was why the church partnered with KDHCS and the Northside Ministerial Alliance to hold the clinic.

“We’re still dealing with structural racism and we’re trying to really operate in the structures that still exist and to get the vaccine to the ones that’s most vulnerable, we’ve got to change some systems,” he said.

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