Community groups meet Covid vaccine hesitancy with trusted voices and accurate information

Hometown, Alaska - Alaska Public Media

The opening image to a slideshow in Spanish aimed at providing accurate information to the Latin community on Covid and vaccinations. Find the full slideshow here.

January 2022 marks the world’s third year working to overcome the Coronavirus pandemic. For many different and valid reasons, people hesitate to get vaccinated. Yet broad and successful vaccination rates are necessary to avoid giving the virus time to mutate and create another variant, as it has done with Omicron.

Alaska Public Media has joined 20 community groups —including cultural, informational, and health organizations—working to ensure vaccine-hesitant Alaskans can find accurate information from community members they trust. APM will offer a series of programs called “Talk to your Neighbor” to highlight this community outreach, and to provide a channel for Alaskans to ask their own questions and tell their own stories.

Today you will hear about a nonprofit network that provides donated medical care to the under-served. A network member will tell of a new cohort of community health workers going to neighborhoods and social service settings to help individuals find medical care, including good information on Covid and vaccinations.

We’ll also hear from a medical doctor. He sometimes sits with vaccine-hesitant patients. He understands this is a difficult conversation, and offers some perspective on how to proceed — always with a great deal of respect. Finally, a social media expert will share insights on where faulty information comes from, how it spreads on social media, and ways the sometimes dire tone of information may be turning off some in the audience.

“Talk to your Neighbor” programming will be archived on this webpage as it develops. Programs are planned on Hometown Alaska, Line One and Alaska Insight.

Listeners are invited to share their thoughts and concerns during today’s program by dialing 907-550-8433. In addition, APM added a recorded phone line to take your questions, concerns and stories 24/7. That number is 907-550-8480. Your input may influence future programming.

Please join us, and help us deliver the information you need.

HOST: Kathleen McCoy

GUESTS:

• Melinda Freemon, executive director, Anchorage Project Access, a community partner
• Mari Selle, chief of staff, Alaska Primary Care Association, instigated that agency’s community health worker cohort
• Dr. Phillip Mendoza, physician, board member of Enlaces, a community partner
• Pedro Luis Graterol, social media specialist, Sol de Medianoche, a community partner

LINKS:

• Covidatos, a Spanish-language website with accurate information on Covid 19 and vaccinations
• Anchorage Project Access, a nonprofit network linking the under-served to health care
• Anchorage Project Access Covid 19 site, dealing with some common misperceptions about the vaccines
• Alaska Primary Care Association, APA member, a nonprofit working toward healthy communities through effective health care facilities
• APCA’s Community Health Worker program, explained
• Sol de Medianoche, a bilingual community newspaper
• Enlaces, a nonprofit that “works to advance social justice and equity for Latinos and Hispanics in the North.”
• Mountain View Health Services, a nonprofit community health clinic in Mountain View
• ‘Talk to your Neighbor,’ Alaska Public Media programming related to this community outreach addressing vaccine hesitancy
• Mis- and Disinformation resources, part of the “Talk to your Neighbor’ programming
• Finding credible information on Covid 19 vaccines, CDC guidance on evaluating information

PARTICIPATE:

• Call 550-8433 (Anchorage) or 1-888-353-5752 (statewide) during the live broadcast (10-11 a.m.)
• Send e-mail to [e-mail] before, during or after the live broadcast (E-mails may be read on air).
• Post your comment or question below (Comments may be read on air).
• LIVE: Monday, January 24, 2022 at 10 a.m.
• RE-AIR: Monday, January 24, 2022 at 8 p.m.
• PODCAST: Available on this page after the program.