Patterson asked this week’s guest, community activist and longtime Springfield resident Otis Williams what he suggested to do to reach more people from the minority community.
“I think right now what you’re doing is working to a point, and now you have to get some young people that really understand the necessity of getting a shot. Let them come forward and say ‘look young people we’ve heard the old people, they’ve did their job, now it’s time for us to do our job... we can step up and make sure our generation is still here’,” Williams said.
“Most of the Blacks in the community know one another, so if you can just get a few of them to come together and spread the word and show that I’ve been vaccinated, I’ve turned out all right, why can’t the rest of us come together and do the same,” he added.
Williams encouraged not only the minority community, but everyone to “step up and get the shot.”
“It’s a life saver. Don’t wait to get sick to worry about getting well. Stay well,” he said.
Patterson said there have been 11 new confirmed cases, which is up from the eight reported last week.
“It’s probably not a statistically significant increase but one of the things we’re watching out very carefully for is the Delta variant,” he said. “The Delta variant has been found in Ohio but we haven’t had it here in Clark County that we know of. But we’re not able to sequence every single test that is positive, so it could be here and we don’t know it.”
Williams said it’s “very important” to him and the community to protect themselves.
“Don’t wait till you get sick and talk about I should have or I could have, say I did,” he said. “Spread the word. Let people see that it really works, especially in the Black community.”
Patterson said a positive thing is that people are still getting the vaccine as the health district had over 350 vaccinations last week.
Williams said the only thing to really do now is to continue to reach out to people to let them know the vaccine is “necessary for survival.”
“You provide the opportunity to get the shot, you put the information out there... you have made sure the opportunity to get the shot is there,” Williams said.
“The majority of us need to understand that the shot is necessary for survival... (In the Black community) Let’s get safe. We have enough obstacles in front of us, we don’t need to create health issues to make it even worse,” he added.
Clark County had 14,266 cases and 306 deaths of the coronavirus as of Friday afternoon, according to the Ohio Department of Health.
As of Friday, 57,910 vaccination shots had been given in Clark County, according to ODH. Just over 43% of the county’s total population has received at least one shot. Nearly 40% has been fully vaccinated.
Facts & Figures
14,266: Number of coronavirus cases as of Friday in Clark County
306: Number of coronavirus deaths as of Friday in Clark County
57,910: Number of vaccination shots given in Clark County
40: Percentage of Clark County residents who have been fully vaccinated
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