Urban League, Community Partners to Host Free COVID-19 Vaccination Clinic

The Urban League of Greater Madison (Madison, WI), along with multiple community partners including SSM Health, will host a free COVID-19 vaccination clinic Tuesday, May 25, 2-7 p.m.

“We expect to be able to give out 250 shots that are open to everybody in the community for those who are 12 years and older as long as they have permission from their parents,” Dr. Ruben Anthony, President and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Madison, tells Madison365.  

This event is a partnership between the Urban League, SSM Health, NAACP Dane County, Mt. Zion Baptist Church, Fountain of Life, Wisconsin Faith Voices for Justice, and Worker Justice Wisconsin. Community members attending the event will be getting the Pfizer shot and asked to come back at a later date for the second shot.

Stark racial disparities persist in vaccinations, state-level CDC data shows, and that is part of the impetus for Tuesday’s event. Kaiser Health News’s analysis shows that only 22% of Black Americans have gotten a shot.

“When you look at the numbers – people tout Wisconsin as one of the best in the nation at getting vaccinated – 67 percent have gotten shots. But when you focus in on African Americans, only 26 or 27 percent have gotten shots,” Anthony says. “So there is a whole lot of resistance to getting COVID shots and we know that there is a whole lot of historical mistrust whether it be the Tuskegee studies or other studies where African-Americans have been experimented on.

The Urban League has launched a vaccination campaign called “Believe It.”

“We got money from the Department of Health and Social Services with the state [of Wisconsin] and the Urban League is engaged in a statewide campaign with the Madison, Milwaukee, Racine and Kenosha Urban Leagues in this ‘Believe It’ campaign,” Anthony says. “Believe what we hear about the risk of not getting the shot. 

“African Americans and the BIPOC communities have had higher rates of infection and death from COVID-19. So believe it,” he adds. “We have to take the shot. If we don’t, we’re not only putting ourselves at risk, we’re putting our families, neighbors, and co-workers at risk.”

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