Virtual Event Highlights COVID-19 Awareness In The Hispanic Community

This past Thursday, the nonprofit organization Greater Gift, in partnership with the Hispanic League and the Community Care Center, hosted a Facebook Live discussion with members of the Hispanic community to address issues related to COVID-19.

Panelists for the event took turns speaking about their experiences during the pandemic and gave their professional advice to members of the community on vaccination, all in order to create awareness about the dangers of the disease.

Perla Nunez, Ecuadorian Outreach Director for Greater Gift, opened the discussion by highlighting that Latinos are currently suffering the most during the pandemic. “In comparison with other ethnicities, Hispanics are most vulnerable to contract COVID-19, hospitalization is three times higher for Hispanics, and deaths are two times higher than other ethnicities,” she said. This, Perla Nunez went on to explain, is partly, although not always, because of the flow of misinformation inside of the community about the vaccine.

The hour-long discussion led by members of the community of a wide age range and career paths focused on providing information about vaccination and on having an open discussion on vaccine hesitancy and reluctance, by creating a comfortable space full of information. Right now, with the new Delta variant, the Latino community is suffering a high-risk of contagion, trust and information was the main goal.

This story was produced by a partnership between WFDD and La Noticia. You can read this story in Spanish at La Noticia.

Eileen Rodriguez is a reporter for both WFDD and La Noticia through Report for America, where she covers COVID-19's impact in the Latino Communities.

Periodista de La Noticia y 88.1 WFDD, Eileen Rodríguez reporta el impacto de COVID-19 en la comunidad Latina en Carolina del Norte. Rodríguez es miembro del cuerpo de periodistas de Report for America 2021-2022