CCTS Community Engagement Director Works to Overcome Vaccine Hesitancy in Latinx Community

 LEXINGTON, Ky. (March 29, 2021) — CCTS Community Engagement Co-Director Gia Mudd-Martin was recently interviewed by local news station LEX18 about her efforts to encourage vaccination in the Latinx community. 

An Associate Professor in the UK College of Nursing, Dr. Mudd-Martin gives vaccines at Kroger Field and at UK's outreach clinics. She said the odds were against the Latinx community from the start of the pandemic.

"They are working in environments where they would not be able to say, you know, 'Well, I'm going to work from home today.' Or, 'My employer is allowing me to stay home for several weeks. In order to, to wait out the pandemic.' They can't afford to do that. And they also are, again, they're essential workers, and therefore, I think that we did see higher rates in the community because of that, they didn't have an option."

You can watch the full segment here. 

Additionally, Rosa Martin (who direct's Dr. Mudd Martin's Corazon health study and serves as co-leader with her on the Latinx COVID Response Coalition) and Jackie Arakaki (a community advocate and health worker with the Corazon study) were interviewed by KET this morning for a program the station is developing to cover vaccine hesitancy and access in the community. Stay tuned!