While more people are being vaccinated across the upper Gulf Coast every day, hesitancy remains. Alabama recently ranked next to last in the nation with fewer than 30 percent of the state’s population vaccinated. Only Mississippi reported fewer residents vaccinated.
Elizabeth Hernandez, a third-year medical student at USA, and vice president of the Medical Spanish Interest Group, realized some people may not have enough information to make an informed choice about getting vaccinated.
“When I first found out about the vaccine I was very excited about receiving it and finally seeing some light at the end of this long, dark tunnel,” she said. “However, I soon realized how wary some people were about the vaccine when I called home to let my family know that I would be in one of the first groups to receive it.”
While she was able to offer her family members facts about the vaccine, she realized there were many others who weren't immediately able to receive this information from trusted sources. So Hernandez contacted Benjamin Estrada, M.D., a pediatric infectious diseases specialist at USA Health, and enlisted his help to create an informative flyer she shared on her social media pages, including Facebook.
Then, with assistance from the Medical Spanish Interest Group, and Juan Torres, cofounder of local immigrants support group BELONG, Hernandez decided to create a video in Spanish to answer frequently asked questions.
“It was such a fun process getting to work on the script with the rest of the group,” she said. “We all brought ideas on what information we thought was most pertinent to our target population, especially regarding accessibility, insurance status, and even documentation status.”
The video has been viewed more than 1,500 times since it was posted in May 2021 on the USA Health Children’s & Women’s Hospital Facebook page.
Hernandez said it was important to debunk inaccurate myths swirling on social media about the vaccine: “The Latino population in Mobile continues to grow exponentially, so we hope that our efforts in sharing this information will encourage more people to get vaccinated and form part of the solution to this pandemic.”
Other medical students and faculty who took part in the video included Camila Ochoa, Jerry Garcia, Munsa Manandhar, Claire Johnson and Juan Ochoa, M.D., a neurologist at USA Health who is director of the SouthCEP Comprehensive Epilepsy Center and a professor of neurology in the USA College of Medicine. Torres, from BELONG, also was interviewed in the video.
The video’s introduction was given by Estrada, professor and vice chair of the USA Health Department of Pediatrics and assistant dean for educational strategies and faculty development. Estrada said he’s proud of the students for seeking proactive solutions during a global pandemic.
“We need to promote vaccinations among everyone and we need to make sure Spanish speaking populations are aware of the benefits of the vaccine,” he said. “We are fortunate that within the medical school we have a Medical Spanish Interest Group who were able to explain the benefits of the vaccine while also trying to answer some of the most common questions.”
View the video on Facebook here: https://fb.watch/5TqlLIFoW5/
