[House Hearing, 117 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
BUILDING VACCINE CONFIDENCE:
OUR SHOT AT CURBING
THE PANDEMIC IN CHICAGO
AND BEYOND
=======================================================================
HEARING
BEFORE THE
SELECT SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE CORONAVIRUS CRISIS
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND REFORM
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
NOVEMBER 10, 2021
__________
Serial No. 117-51
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Printed for the use of the Committee on Oversight and Reform
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Available on: govinfo.gov,
oversight.house.gov or
docs.house.gov
__________
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
46-258 PDF WASHINGTON : 2022
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COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND REFORM
CAROLYN B. MALONEY, New York, Chairwoman
Eleanor Holmes Norton, District of James Comer, Kentucky, Ranking
Columbia Minority Member
Stephen F. Lynch, Massachusetts Jim Jordan, Ohio
Jim Cooper, Tennessee Paul A. Gosar, Arizona
Gerald E. Connolly, Virginia Virginia Foxx, North Carolina
Raja Krishnamoorthi, Illinois Jody B. Hice, Georgia
Jamie Raskin, Maryland Glenn Grothman, Wisconsin
Ro Khanna, California Michael Cloud, Texas
Kweisi Mfume, Maryland Bob Gibbs, Ohio
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York Clay Higgins, Louisiana
Rashida Tlaib, Michigan Ralph Norman, South Carolina
Katie Porter, California Pete Sessions, Texas
Cori Bush, Missouri Fred Keller, Pennsylvania
Danny K. Davis, Illinois Andy Biggs, Arizona
Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Florida Andrew Clyde, Georgia
Peter Welch, Vermont Nancy Mace, South Carolina
Henry C. ``Hank'' Johnson, Jr., Scott Franklin, Florida
Georgia Jake LaTurner, Kansas
John P. Sarbanes, Maryland Pat Fallon, Texas
Jackie Speier, California Yvette Herrell, New Mexico
Robin L. Kelly, Illinois Byron Donalds, Florida
Brenda L. Lawrence, Michigan
Mark DeSaulnier, California
Jimmy Gomez, California
Ayanna Pressley, Massachusetts
Mike Quigley, Illinois
Jenifer Gaspar, Deputy Staff Director & Chief Counsel
Beth Mueller, Counsel
Yusra Abdelmeguid, Clerk
Contact Number: 202-225-5051
Mark Marin, Minority Staff Director
Select Subcommittee On The Coronavirus Crisis
James E. Clyburn, South Carolina, Chairman
Maxine Waters, California Steve Scalise, Louisiana, Ranking
Carolyn B. Maloney, New York Minority Member
Nydia M. Velazquez, New York Jim Jordan, Ohio
Bill Foster, Illinois Mark E. Green, Tennessee
Jamie Raskin, Maryland Nicole Malliotakis, New York
Raja Krishnamoorthi, Illinois Mariannette Miller-Meeks, Iowa
C O N T E N T S
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Page
Hearing held on November 10, 2021................................ 1
Witnesses
Panel 1
Lori Lightfoot, Mayor, City of Chicago
Oral Statement............................................... 5
Ngozi Ezike, M.D., Director, Illinois Department of Public Health
Oral Statement............................................... 6
Panel 2
Helene D. Gayle, M.D., President and CEO, The Chicago Community
Trust
Oral Statement............................................... 16
Omar Khan, M.D., Co-Chair, Muslim Community Center's Health &
Awareness Committee
Oral Statement............................................... 18
Martha Martinez, Manager, Pandemic Health Navigator Program (Gail
Borden Public Library District)
Oral Statement............................................... 19
Don Abram, Program Manager, Interfaith Youth Core
Oral Statement............................................... 20
Ben O'Donnell, Coronavirus Survivor
Oral Statement............................................... 22
Dr. Joseph Kanter, State Health Officer and Medical Director
Louisiana Department of Health
No Oral Statement............................................
Written opening statements and the written statements of the
witnesses are available on the U.S. House of Representatives
Document Repository at: docs.house.gov.
Index of Documents
----------
Documents entered into the record for this hearing are listed
below.
* ``Getting to Yes: Increasing Equitable Outcomes in COVID
Vaccinations- Reaching underserved communities
disproportionatle impacted by COVID-19,'' report, by Advocate
Aurora Health.
* Letter to Reps. Krishnamoorthi and Foster, from Advocate
Aurora Health.
Documents are available at: docs.house.gov.
BUILDING VACCINE CONFIDENCE:
OUR SHOT AT CURBING
THE PANDEMIC IN CHICAGO
AND BEYOND
----------
Wednesday, November 10, 2021
House of Representatives
Committee on Oversight and Reform
Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis
Washington, D.C.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 1:08 p.m., in
Conference Room C, Malcolm X College, 1900 W. Jackson Blvd.,
Chicago, IL, and via Zoom. The Hon. Raja Krishnamoorthi
presiding.
Present: Representatives Krishnamoorthi and Foster.
Mr. Krishnamoorthi. The subcommittee will come to order.
The title of today's hearing is ``Building Vaccine
Confidence: Our Shot at Curbing the Pandemic in Chicago and
Beyond.''
Without objection, the presiding member is authorized to
declare a recess of the committee at any time.
I now recognize myself for an opening statement.
I would, first of all, like to thank Congressman Foster, my
fellow subcommittee member, for joining me today, and all of
today's witnesses for taking the time to testify about the
critical issue of building vaccine confidence.
I would also like to thank Chairman Clyburn of the Select
Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis for his strong
leadership and for lending us the resources for this important
hearing today.
President Biden, Governor Pritzker, and Mayor Lightfoot
have successfully vaccinated millions of Americans, over 222
million in total, including 8.3 million here in Illinois and
1.6 million in Chicago. That is over 75 percent of all
Americans, Illinoisans, and Chicagoans over the age of 12 who
have received at least one dose of vaccine.
In just five months, the vaccine prevented 140,000 deaths
across the country.
We know that the vaccine is effective. We know that it is
safe. And we also know that widespread vaccination is the way
to end this pandemic. So, why aren't more people getting
vaccinated?
After all, without the vaccine, people are six times more
likely to get coronavirus, and 11 times more likely to die from
it. And vaccinations offer better protection against the
coronavirus than immunity from a prior infection. Unvaccinated
people who had recovered from a prior COVID infection are five
times more likely to get COVID again than those who are
vaccinated who had a prior infection.
With the vaccine, families can confidently gather for the
holidays. Kids can see their grandparents. Children can spend
more time in school and less time quarantining.
The Federal Government has provided millions of dollars in
aid to end this scourge. The American Rescue Plan provided $350
billion across the country, including about $275 million here
in Illinois. Chicago's vaccination efforts were fueled by
almost $100 million in Federal funding.
Yet, many Americans remain unvaccinated. Nationwide, more
than 20 percent of all adults and children over the age of 12
have not yet received even one dose of vaccine. Illinois has
done better than the rest, and Chicago the same. Yet among
adults and children over the age of 12, 23 percent have not
started a vaccine series here in Illinois.
We now have an unprecedented opportunity to increase
vaccine uptake here in Chicago and across the country. Just
last week, Federal regulators approved the vaccine for children
ages 5 to 11. I should say that my own five-year-old got
vaccinated last week, and she got a poke present in return.
We owe it to our children to get shots in their arms
quickly and equitably. They will spend more time learning, and,
importantly, they will be able to get back to playing sports
and socializing. They will have access to reduced-price
nutritional meals, we well as other important social services.
President Biden, Governor Pritzker, and Mayor Lightfoot are
all working hard to get shots to our kids. They are ensuring
that vaccines are readily available at locations parents know
and trust, like doctor's offices, children's hospitals, and
schools.
Chicago is closing its public schools this Friday so
parents can get their children vaccinated, and they are
offering a small monetary award for children who get
vaccinated.
As we vaccinate young children, we must continue to address
vaccine hesitancy in historically underserved communities. We
must continue the hyperlocal outreach that is working in
Chicago. That means sending trusted messengers into their
communities, and it means overall building vaccine confidence.
We are going to hear from many people today about how well
this approach works.
We are going to hear from Mayor Lightfoot, who spearheaded
the Protect Chicago 77 program, a community engagement program
working to ensure 77 percent of Chicagoans 12 and older, across
all 77 Chicago communities, have started their vaccinations by
year's end.
Chicago is getting close; it is at 75 percent, and
climbing. To help get to 77 percent, every Chicagoan can talk
to friends and loved ones about the vaccine. Businesses can
require vaccinations for their staff and patrons.
And we don't want to just hear from government leaders. We
will be hearing from people who are out in their communities,
doing the hard work of on-the-ground outreach.
Ms. Martha Martinez, the supervisor at an outreach program
at a public library in Elgin, will tell you about how she and
her team talk to community members every day. Dr. Omar Khan is
both a medical doctor and a Muslim-American community leader.
He will tell us how he has tailored his work to those in his
community. Mr. Don Abram works for the Interfaith Youth Core,
which funds local groups that are working to increase vaccine
uptake.
They all agree on one thing: hyperlocal, on-the-ground
outreach works. And the empirical evidence supports this
approach.
Financial incentives are great, and they do a great job of
ensuring a large number of people get vaccinated when they
become eligible. But they don't work for everyone.
Employer vaccine requirements can also help fill the gaps.
At United Airlines, implementing vaccine requirements increased
the vaccination rate to 99 percent. Chicago and Illinois have
both implemented vaccine requirements for public employees,
keeping children and others in the care of public workers safe.
And we are looking forward to hearing what Dr. Ezike has to say
about this, as well.
Among the vaccine hesitant, many more want time to wait and
see if the vaccine works. And many just want to talk to someone
who can answer their questions. By funding and empowering
hyperlocal outreach on-the-ground efforts, Chicago and Illinois
are helping residents get the answers they need from the people
they trust. And that is going to be an ongoing theme, I think,
of today's hearing, which is finding trusted messengers to do
that hyperlocal, on-the-ground outreach.
With hard work in the weeks ahead, we will keep children in
schools and let families come together for Thanksgiving and the
Christmas and winter holidays. I look forward to hearing from
our witnesses how to meet those goals by building vaccine
confidence in Chicago and beyond.
Now I would like to recognize Congressman Foster for his
statement.
Mr. Foster. Thank you to the committee and to my friend,
Congressman Krishnamoorthi, for convening this hearing, and to
both panels of witnesses for their participation. I would also
like to thank several organizations in attendance that have
been critical to the COVID vaccination efforts in my district:
the Will-Grundy Medical Clinic; VNA Health Care; and Advocate
Aurora Health.
As one of two Ph.D. scientists in Congress, I always look
to the research and data when making decisions, and the
decision to get vaccinated is one place where the data could
not be more clear: all three of the FDA-approved vaccines are
extremely safe and extremely effective.
We run into two classes of arguments in the discussion over
vaccinations. One is a scientific one based on pure self-
interest, and a second one less scientific. It is based on your
duty to your family and your community, and ultimately your
country and all humanity because of the danger that one person
being infected presents to eventually all of humanity.
So how do we know that they are safe and effective? First,
the vaccines were tested on primates, for whom they were over
90 percent effective and had no serious side effects. Then we
moved on to three different phases of human trials.
Across each of these three phases, the first of these
phases, between 30,000 and 50,000 people received each vaccine,
and each person was monitored closely for any adverse reactions
or COVID infections. Again, the vaccines proved to be up to 95
percent effective at preventing COVID infections, and even
better at preventing hospitalizations and deaths. The side
effects observed were rare and usually minor.
So, if you want more evidence, then even after the vaccines
were approved and deployed at massive scales, the FDA and
pharmaceutical companies continued to closely monitor people's
reactions, keeping close records of any serious side effects or
infections that have occurred. To date, 431 million shots have
been administered in the U.S. If these shots were dangerous, we
would know it by now. And if they didn't work, we would also
know that.
But, in fact, this extensive data has shown the opposite.
Although it is still possible for someone who is vaccinated to
catch COVID-19 or to pass it on, unvaccinated people are six
times more likely to get the disease and, depending on the
study, 11 to 20 times more likely to die from it than a
vaccinated person. Many of our hospitals are overwhelmed with
COVID patients right now, and more than 95 percent of those
patients are unvaccinated.
And as far as safety, after tracking millions of
vaccination outcomes, the only common side effect is a sore arm
and perhaps a day of flu symptoms. This certainly isn't fun,
but neither is spending a month on a ventilator.
But everyone on the two panels before us today already
agrees with these conclusions. So, what we are here to do today
is to figure out how to effectively communicate these data and
statistics and ultimately get shots in arms.
Our local health departments and their partner
organizations in the southwest suburbs have been working around
the clock to get our neighbors vaccinated. We have seen the
Will County and DuPage County Health Departments, among many
others, run highly successful vaccination campaigns for our
communities of color. I am incredibly grateful for their
dedication, and I look forward to hearing what further support
we can give them to get us across the finish line.
Thank you, and I yield back.
Mr. Krishnamoorthi. Thank you, Congressman Foster.
Now I would like to begin by introducing our first two
panelists.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has led an impressive campaign
to vaccinate Chicagoans quickly and equitably.
Mayor, thank you for everything you have done and
everything that you are doing to build vaccine confidence in
Chicago.
Our second witness is Dr. Ngozi Ezike, Director of the
Illinois Department of Public Health, who has been a constant
advocate and a steady voice for our state's public health and
for children's health.
Director, thank you for all that you are doing for our
residents in Illinois.
I will begin by swearing in the witnesses.
If you would please rise and raise your right hand?
[Witnesses sworn.]
Mr. Krishnamoorthi. Thank you.
Let the record show that the witnesses answered in the
affirmative.
Thank you and please be seated.
Without objection, your written statements will be made
part of the record.
With that, Mayor Lightfoot, you are now recognized to
provide your testimony.
STATEMENT OF LORI E. LIGHTFOOT, MAYOR, CITY OF CHICAGO
Ms. Lightfoot. Thank you, Congressman Krishnamoorthi and
Congressman Foster, and members of the Select Subcommittee on
the Coronavirus Crisis, for holding today's hearing. I applaud
your work and the unwavering support that you have shown
municipalities across Illinois.
Though this journey is far from over, it is an honor to
appear before you today to share the work that we have
accomplished thus far and our plans for the future, which would
not have been possible without cooperation from the government
at all levels. So, I want to again thank the members of this
body for the resources that have been provided to
municipalities like Chicago. I also want to thank our State
partners represented today by Dr. Ezike, who has been very
instrumental in making sure that we are focused and coordinated
in our efforts with the State.
From the moment COVID-19 hit Chicago, we were determined to
listen to public health experts on the science and address its
effects equitably and include our residents in the progress
that we are making toward mitigating COVID-19. Thanks to this,
we saw extremely strong rates of residents cooperating with
public health orders and developed an equally strong community-
led, hyperlocal response. We have been able to build vaccine
confidence in our city because we started early on working with
local leaders across disciplines to build a robust, city-wide
response.
This started with the recognition that although all of
Chicago was impacted by COVID-19, our Black and brown
communities really bore the brunt.
For example, in April 2020, despite making up only 29
percent of Chicagoans, Black residents accounted for 75 percent
of COVID-related deaths. That was seven times the rate of any
other demographic.
To address this glaring and unacceptable disparity, my
team, alongside community partners, created the Racial Equity
Rapid Response Team, or RERRT, which forged partnerships with
trusted community messengers across disciplines and utilized
trusted locations to provide residents with information,
testing, and eventually vaccine.
While this started with a focus on deaths in Black Chicago,
we soon widened our aperture and worked to build the same kind
of trusting relationships across Latinx Chicago.
To bolster this data-driven, hyperlocal approach, we
launched initiatives like Protect Chicago Plus, in which we
sought to vaccinate multiple generations within the same
household simultaneously by going deep into these communities
that were showing sustained rates of high-case infections. Here
again, we used a network that we had built for testing and
education to make progress in our hardest-hit zip codes.
We also then created Protect Chicago at Home, which
mobilized our paramedics and vaccinators to provide in-home
vaccinations for homebound or disabled residents and has been
available to all residents free of charge since June of this
year.
To date, more than 15,000 people have been served through
this Protect Chicago at Home program. It is very, very popular.
And as of the last four weeks, 54.6 percent of the
participants in this program were Black, and 18 percent were
Latinx.
We also created a 600-strong work force of contact tracers,
and we specifically targeted the underemployed with an earn-as-
you-learn approach. Not only have they been doing contact
tracing, but they have also been deployed to be vaccine
Ambassadors in their communities.
Recently, as you mentioned, we launched Protect Chicago 77,
which engages individuals in every single one of our 77
communities to ensure that at least 77 percent of residents
aged 12 and over have received at least one dose of COVID-19
vaccine by the end of the year. These efforts have helped to
save countless lives, including Marie Ann Jesus, parents of
Portage Park resident Cessi. Cessi and her parents were
desperate for a vaccine appointment when they met Brianna, who
volunteered to connect them with vaccine appointments for
residents after losing her grandfather to COVID-19. Twenty-four
hours later, Cessi secured an appointment to protect her
parents. Cessi's story and the story of countless others were
made possible for the many volunteers, community leaders, and
organizations who continue to pull their time, talents, and
resources together to protect our most vulnerable communities
and have allowed Chicago to retain its reputation as having the
most equitable vaccine distribution strategy in the country.
I want to emphasize a couple of data points in my closing
seconds. Ninety-nine percent of fully vaccinated Chicagoans
have not tested positive for COVID-19, whereas 99.9 percent
have not been hospitalized, and 99.9 percent have not died due
to COVID. These numbers are pretty remarkable, but the flipside
is the case for folks who remain unvaccinated.
My time is up, but I appreciate the opportunity to speak
with you here today. Thank you.
Mr. Krishnamoorthi. Thank you, Mayor.
Now I would like to recognize Director Ezike for your
testimony.
STATEMENT OF NGOZI EZIKE, M.D., DIRECTOR, ILLINOIS DEPARTMENT
OF PUBLIC HEALTH
Dr. Ezike. Congressman Krishnamoorthi and Congressman
Foster, thank you so much for inviting me to be here today to
speak about our vaccination efforts to protect all of Illinois
from COVID-19. And thank you for your leadership at the Federal
level to promote these life-saving efforts to keep our country
safe.
As of November 9, 2021, more than 16 million vaccines have
been administered in Illinois, leading to about 62 percent of
the population with at least one dose. And more importantly, 57
percent of the total population is fully vaccinated against
COVID-19.
By age, the share of Illinoisans who are fully vaccinated
is about 84 percent for individuals over the age of 65; 66
percent for adults aged 18 to 64; and 54 percent for youth age
12 to 17. Following the authorization of vaccine for children
age 5 to 11, just on October 29, younger children have started
to get vaccinated. As of November 7, over 15,000 doses have
been administered to children age 5 to 11, including your own.
Mr. Krishnamoorthi. Thank you.
Dr. Ezike. We are currently averaging more than 53,000
doses administered per day Statewide, and the seven-day rolling
average of doses administered in Illinois is more than twice as
high as our most recent lull, at roughly 19,000 doses per day,
back in mid-September. There is no doubt that the local health
departments, health care providers, retail pharmacy partners,
employers, and so many other partners across Illinois have
worked tirelessly together to implement a very successful
Statewide vaccination effort, and we are celebrating this
achievement thus far, but still understanding that there is a
lot more work to do.
We know that there is a wide variance in vaccination rates
across the State, so the numbers can sometimes hide the
details. For example, about 95 percent of seniors in Kendall
County are fully vaccinated, and that compares to 34 percent of
seniors being vaccinated in Alexander County. For youths age 12
to 17, 70 percent are fully vaccinated in DuPage County, while
two percent are fully vaccinated in Harden County.
Racial differences have also persisted, including for young
children just beginning to be vaccinated. Among those 15,000
doses administered through November 7, [inaudible] percent were
administered to white children, and only 12 percent to Hispanic
children, and three percent to Black children.
As we prepare to accelerate the next wave of vaccinations
for children age 5 to 11, now is a good time to take stock of
exactly what we have learned about strategies to increase those
vaccination rates for all.
There was a time when there was incredibly high demand for
the COVID vaccine before they were approved and as those first
doses were rolled out in December 2020. But since April 2021,
when the rate of vaccination actually began to slow in
Illinois, the population of individuals left to be vaccinated
is increasingly composed of people hesitant to the COVID-19
vaccine, in addition to the minority of Illinoisans who could
be described as anti-vaccine or opposed to any form of
vaccination.
In Illinois, those that are most likely to report vaccine
hesitancy have primarily been younger people, people of color,
and rural residents. Importantly, we also know that vaccine
hesitancy and refusal can serve to reinforce social identity,
in this case often tied to political or partisan and religious
identities polarized through the pandemic. Research also
reveals some of the reasons vaccine-hesitant people share for
not receiving the vaccine include concerns with the speed of
vaccine development, lower trust in the experts, and fears
about the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine.
Our continuing vaccination efforts will rely in part on
acknowledging and understanding vaccine hesitancy to best
target remaining vaccine-eligible individuals. Every day we are
vaccinating individuals who are likely to have expressed some
hesitancy, otherwise they would have already been vaccinated
since all adults were eligible in April.
These individuals are hesitant adopters, people who are
both vaccinated and yet report some degree of hesitancy. In the
current phase of the pandemic, addressing vaccine hesitancy
should focus on creating more hesitant adopters by implementing
interventions that are tailored to the specific concerns of
specific populations. This has been our approach in Illinois to
date, where we have spent a total of $225 million on the
vaccination effort.
There is need for urgent action. The highest rates of
COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy are found in the demographic groups
that have already been the most severely affected by the
pandemic. In Chicago, in Cook, for example, COVID-19 vaccine
hesitancy for children was nearly three times higher among
Black parents compared to white parents, while Black Chicagoans
comprise a disproportionately greater number of COVID-19 deaths
compared to other groups.
Attitudinal hesitancy may not be the only issue, however.
Communities with lower rates of COVID-19 vaccination are also
those with structural inequities and access to health care
resources. For example, retail pharmacies have been a major
source of both testing and vaccination, but research has
persistently found that Black and Hispanic neighborhoods have
fewer options for pharmacies and have to drive longer distances
to the closest COVID-19 vaccination.
All that we have learned to date will inform how we
implement our ongoing efforts for the 5-to 11-year-olds. We are
working to reach school-age children. We are going to use our
pediatricians, our family doctors, our community health
centers, all these places where parents can receive trusted
information about the vaccine to reduce hesitancy.
To date, approximately 2,200 providers in Illinois have
registered to administer the vaccine, and we plan to continue
registering the additional providers, especially targeting
communities where vaccination rates have lagged.
Federal support could significantly aid Illinois in our
efforts to facilitate vaccination among hesitant individuals.
The Federal Government should help mitigate and counter
misinformation in the ongoing info pandemic that parallels the
pandemic. This info pandemic fuels hesitancy and public
confusion through the rapid and widespread dissemination of
inaccurate messages. Knowing what is being spread and catching
it early could allow IDPH and our many partners to respond
swiftly to misinformation with simple, consistent, accurate
counter-messaging. Unfortunately, current Federal funding is
often restrictive and lacks the ability to rapidly reallocate
those funds to address the emerging needs and crisis situations
as they arise.
Reorganizing public health funding is one way the Federal
Government can help us implement the kinds of interventions
necessary to refute misinformation and continue vaccinating
hesitant individuals and populations.
Thank you so much for the opportunity to share Illinois'
experience, and I am very happy to answer questions.
Mr. Krishnamoorthi. Thank you so much.
I should have told you about the timer before, but there is
a five-minute timer here, and we will try to abide by the time.
I would like to recognize myself for five minutes of
questions.
Mayor Lightfoot, I understand that Chicago has taken a
data-driven approach to its vaccination program, and I am
fascinated by this at-home vaccination strategy.
Can you explain some of the lessons Chicago has learned and
how it has changed its approach based on what it has learned?
Ms. Lightfoot. Well, I think one of the biggest things that
we have learned is that there is not a one-size-fits-all
approach, particularly when you are dealing with vulnerable
communities. We have really spent a significant amount of time
building partnerships, joining tables that have already been
built, and really then using the data and sharing that data
with local-based advocacy groups and stakeholders to craft
really neighborhood-specific interventions.
One of the ones that really came out of that discussion was
our at-home program. We started that using Johnson & Johnson to
go into homes of our seniors. But we have seen such an embrace
of it across particularly Black Chicago on the South Side,
where we have seen lower rates of vaccine uptake, that we have
literally been going door to door with vaccine Ambassadors and
then signing up whole households for the at-home service. It
has really been quite tremendous with us.
But what I would say is, again, one of the things that has
been most important in our vaccine distribution program is the
work that we did prior to the time that the vaccine hit by
building those relationships with trusted community partners
and messengers, and then using that infrastructure to push out
vaccines, and then constantly being engaged with them to
understand what the levels of hesitancy are.
I think Dr. Ezike got it just right. Based on polling that
I have seen, both nationally and certainly here locally, there
is a small percentage that are anti-vax, that are never going
to reach it. The vast majority of people that remain
unvaccinated are still vaccine hesitant. So, when we sent out
those Ambassadors into neighborhoods, going door to door, we
see the ability to really address people's concerns, make sure
that we are informing them of the facts because, as you know,
there is still a persistent drumbeat of misinformation out
there about the vaccine, about the efficacy of it, the
ingredients of it, what was used and so forth. When we are able
to have those kind of one-on-one conversations, we are able to
break through at remarkable rates.
Mr. Krishnamoorthi. Thank you.
Dr. Ezike, rural areas, it seems like this is a really
tough-to crack. Can you tell us what is working in rural areas,
and can you give any specific examples?
Dr. Ezike. You know, we have tried the door-to-door method
that had worked in some areas, and we had a lot of pushback and
resistance on that. So, what we have done, we have continued to
do outreach, we have continued to partner with churches in the
area, trying to find local people of faith who are willing to
share the message, allow education to be spread, host events.
But we have also had to make sure that we give other options,
and so we have been very diligent about educating about
monoclonal antibodies. We know that at the end of the day we
need to save lives, and if we have people who are still on the
fence, still hesitant, or absolutely not going to get a
vaccine, part of the approach has to make sure that they do
understand how they might take another option if they were, in
fact, to get infected, although we continue to promote an ounce
of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
We have also tried to make sure that there is access----
Mr. Krishnamoorthi. Excuse me. If I could jump in, are
there any trusted organizations in the rural areas, or trusted
messengers, that seem to be more effective than others?
Dr. Ezike. So, we think that using physicians from the
local area, people who are recognized by people in that area.
We have a strong rural health department at IDPH, and working
with those physicians who are in the community, helping to have
the town halls where people can ask the specific questions that
are maybe holding them back. And when they see a physician or a
nurse practitioner, another clinician that is known to them
that is from the local community, sometimes that correct
messenger is the person whose message will be received.
Mr. Krishnamoorthi. Now, Mayor Lightfoot, what do you
think? Who do you find to be--if there is a group or a class of
people who are the most trusted messengers that you have found,
who are they?
Ms. Lightfoot. I think it is those local health care
providers, first and foremost. But what we have also been able
to deploy is people themselves who are vaccine hesitant, who
then can tell the story to others about what it was that really
got them to decide, no, the vaccine is something that I need
for myself and for my family. Those are very powerful
messengers.
Mr. Krishnamoorthi. Excellent. Thank you.
Now I would like to recognize Congressman Foster for your
questions.
Mr. Foster. Thank you.
You know, as a scientist, I am really proud of the work
that researchers have done to develop and test vaccines to
provide protection against this virus. In the early days of the
pandemic, Congresswoman Donna Shalala, the former head of HHS,
and I led a bipartisan letter urging maximum resources to be
put into all vaccine manufacturers that had any chance of
making a workable vaccine. This effort was eventually rebranded
as Operation Warp Speed, and the Coronavirus Oversight
Committee that we are convening here, we have been very active
in overseeing that production effort and also making sure that
when the first doses were available they were equitably
distributed, which was not naturally going to happen.
So, I am very grateful for the work of the Federal, State,
and local officials, as well as the health care providers and
other community members who helped get the first millions of
shots in arms in record time. And now with 423 million doses of
coronavirus vaccines administered in the U.S. to date, we have
seen that the vaccines are very safe and effective. The data
show that the vaccines are literally lifesavers and that
serious side effects are rare, and yet far too many Americans
are still placing their lives and the lives of others at risk
because of vaccine hesitancy.
So, Dr. Ezike, as a physician, what are the first arguments
that you find most effective when you recommend that people get
vaccinated or boosted as soon as they are eligible?
Dr. Ezike. I continue to share the information about how
layered approaches are important and how prevention is always
our first line. I think I try to use the examples of vaccine-
preventable illnesses that we don't see. I have been a
physician for over 20 years. I have not treated one case of
measles. But my tennis captain, her brother is deaf from the
results of measles. So, in that short time, we can see what the
vaccine has done.
The example of polio, I don't have children jumping double-
dutch jump rope with braces on their legs from polio. The only
reason that we don't have polio is because of the vaccine.
So, just reminding and level-setting about what vaccines
are.
I know a big pushback that comes back is when we talk about
Tuskegee in the African American community. We talk a lot
about, oh, the Tuskegee experiment where public health
officials did not do right by people of color. So, even
understanding that example, acknowledging that something was
done very wrong during that time, but remembering that in
Tuskegee, in that instance, we had a situation where treatment
was withheld. There were available antibiotics that were
withheld from people who needed it. And in this case, we have
that available treatment that we don't want to withhold from
people of color or anyone else.
Mr. Foster. You are right, that will just compound the
inequity that has been longstanding in our health care system.
Actually, you did a good job of answering my next question.
Mayor Lightfoot, are there other aspects of your city's
approach that have helped convince Chicagoans that vaccines are
safe and effective that you have not had a chance to mention
yet?
Ms. Lightfoot. Yes. I think, look, at the very beginning it
was just getting out the basic information about the various
clinical trials, the results of the effectiveness. That really
helped to allay a lot of concerns initially. But right now
where we are, there is really not a one-size-fits-all approach.
You have got to simply start the conversation by listening and
really getting an understanding of what the particular person's
hesitancy is. It is that simple, but that complicated.
And we have all the data that you want. For example, in our
city, if you are a person of color 50 years or older, you have
a 50 times higher likelihood of death if you are unvaccinated.
When you start talking to people one-on-one about those kinds
of shocking statistics, that catches their attention.
But what we also try to do is draw out the misinformation
that they have taken in so that we can disabuse them with the
facts. But it really requires a lot of patience, a lot of
listening, to go directly, and that is a lot of what the
vaccine Ambassadors, the work that they are doing on a regular
basis, and that is why I am proud of that program and why I
think it has been wildly successful in bringing communities
into care.
The other thing that we are really avoiding doing is
shaming people in communities for not being vaccinated. So, we
are trying to reinforce the Protect Chicago 77 with positive
messaging. Any time a community makes measureable progress, we
highlight that on various social media platforms, and I think
that positive reinforcement is also helping considerably.
Mr. Foster. Thank you.
I have five seconds left, so I think I will yield back.
Mr. Krishnamoorthi. OK. Thank you, Congressman.
We are going to do one more round of questions.
So, Mayor, as you were talking, one thing that dawned on me
is that when you have almost 80 percent of Chicago residents
now having received their first shot, that has to touch almost
every family in the city, at least that is what I am assuming.
Now, let me ask you this. This may be a loaded question,
but do you find that family members are good Ambassadors to
other family members? Because I hear the anecdotes both ways.
Ms. Lightfoot. It really does go both ways. But if we can
reach someone in that family, and then get them to be the
Ambassador with their own family, to talk to mom, dad, grandma,
other siblings, it does make a huge world of difference. That
is why I think in part our initial push, Protect Chicago Plus,
was so successful. We really concentrated on getting someone,
particularly within an intergenerational household, who would
be the messenger on the vaccine, who would bring the reluctant
family members to a vaccinationsite. That is what I think made
it very successful.
For example, the Belmont Cragin neighborhood, through most
of 2020, before there was a vaccine, was a neighborhood where
we saw exploding case rates, percent positivities in the high
teens, or even higher in some instances. That community now is
one of the most vaccinated in our city because of the hard work
that was done through Protect Chicago Plus, working with
trusted stakeholders, and we held a lot of vaccination
opportunities all over, in schools, in houses of worship. You
name it, we were there working with our partners in various
pharmacies, with various doctors that were from that
neighborhood. That neighborhood has had a remarkable recovery
because of the hard work that was done prior to the time that
we got vaccine, and then pushing it out and highlighting those
local stakeholders who said, yes, I got the vaccine, and here
is the reason why.
Mr. Krishnamoorthi. Got it. Thank you.
Dr. Ezike, what can the Federal Government do to assist in
increasing the vaccination rate? You mentioned something about
disinformation or misinformation and social media. I would be
curious about what are your observations there and what are you
doing or what needs to be done by others to control that issue?
Dr. Ezike. I think the infodemic, if you will, is a very
powerful tool that is working negatively against the COVID
response efforts, and I know most public health departments and
other health partners don't really have the resources or the
expertise to be able to monitor what the trends are in social
media. So, by the time we are actually aware of some of these
ideas that have just permeated and bathed the people, it is a
very uphill battle to get on top of that because that news
spreads so quickly.
So, if there was a way that the Federal Government could
assist with monitoring the information that is out there so
that we can jump and seize hold of some of these mistruths and
disinformation earlier on, before it has had such a chance to
percolate throughout society, we could probably avert many
people from hearing the wrong news, or at least having the
counter-message be ready.
Mr. Krishnamoorthi. Getting in front of it.
Dr. Ezike. Exactly.
Mr. Krishnamoorthi. Mayor, what do you think about the
challenge with regard to youth? I see it has risen, the
percentage has gone above 50 percent, and Dr. Ezike said this
about Illinois as a whole. What strategies seem to be working
with our youth? I am talking about 12 to 18 for right now.
Ms. Lightfoot. Well, first of all, we have to get the
parents. In that age cohort, you have to get the parents on
board. Fundamentally, that is what it is really about. You have
to make sure that young people are connected up with a
pediatrician, because that is going to be the most likely place
that you are going to see. And then for the older end of the
teenage years into the early 20's, we have done a number of
different things. We have popular influencers who are going
directly to those young people talking about the vaccine. We
have done D.J. radio takeovers where there is messaging through
the whole program on popular radio sites in a variety of
languages all talking about the safety of the vaccine. Of
course, we have to get those people vaccinated first, but we
have had a lot of success with that.
We have done a lot of digital assets deployed on social
media platforms and elsewhere to really reach young people with
the kind of messaging and imagery that is going to make a
difference for them.
So, we have really been focused on that cohort, I would say
initially 18 to 39, and now more recently 12 to 18, and we are
doing the same thing, frankly, that marketers are doing, what
works, how do you reach them, and that is where we are going.
Mr. Krishnamoorthi. Thank you.
Congressman Foster?
Mr. Foster. Thank you. Back to the pure science for a
moment.
Viruses constantly change through mutation, and new
variants of a virus can spread more easily or make viruses
resistant to treatments or other vaccines. One of the strongest
arguments for getting yourself vaccinated is to reduce the
number of chances the virus has to incubate a new variant, a
new and dangerous variant of itself. The most prominent of
these is currently the Delta variant, which is thought to be
twice as contagious as the original virus. In fact, studies
have shown that people infected with the Delta variant carry
about 1,000 times more copies of the virus in their respiratory
tract than those infected with the original strain.
Dr. Ezike, how has your department responded to the
challenges from the onset of the Delta variant?
Dr. Ezike. So, we obviously had a heads-up because we saw
the information coming from around the world, and so we knew
that this virus will find its way, this variant will find its
way to us. So, we continued the messaging. Masking became
another important tool on top of the vaccination, and just
trying to spread through our community Ambassadors as well the
information that this was a different virus. I kept using the
line you are talking about COVID-19; we are dealing with COVID-
21 right now. So, you have to understand that this virus has
changed. It has newer properties, and they are not properties
that work in our favor, and that is why we had to go back to
the masking for all, and that is why we had to double our
efforts for vaccination, understanding that this vaccine, we
are fortunate that it also still offered protection even
against this new variant and that the sooner we got as many
people vaccinated--and, of course, we know this is a global
issue in terms of vaccination--the sooner we would be able to
slow the continued mutation and development of new variants.
Mr. Foster. So it may, in fact, be Aaron Rodgers who is
that one-in-a-billion person who incubates through his selfish
decisions, incubates a new variant that could put billions of
people at risk.
Ms. Lightfoot. I would be happy to talk about Aaron Rodgers
all day long.
[Laughter.]
Mr. Foster. Really? OK.
[Laughter.]
Mr. Foster. That is a little bit outside--let's leave
Chicago for a moment here.
Illinois has worked hard to increase the vaccine uptake,
and to do so equitably. Earlier this year Illinois Governor
Pritzker launched a $10 million campaign to tackle vaccine
hesitancy and spread awareness about coronavirus vaccines, and
although more than 77 percent of Illinoisans over the age of 12
have now received at least one dose of the vaccine, vaccination
rates are lagging behind in some parts of the state, and
particularly the rural areas. This is not unique to Illinois.
We are seeing it across the country. A recent study found that
close to 40 percent of rural respondents nationwide were not
vaccinated or eager to get vaccinated, compared to almost a
quarter of suburban residents and a little over 20 percent of
urban residents.
Dr. Ezike, how will the low vaccination rates in rural
areas make your job difficult throughout the state?
Dr. Ezike. Well, we have already seen the effects of the
low vaccination as we have come off of this Delta surge. The
area that was hit the hardest was the region that was the least
vaccinated. We got to the extent in southern Illinois where
there are literally no more ICU beds--not for COVID patients
but for any patient. We were interfacing with our Federal VA
partners, begging for beds that we could transfer patients to.
We were asking hospital partners in other parts of the state to
please allow us to transport patients.
So, we have already seen the effects of the low vaccination
rates. In fact, when we looked at where we had limited ICU
capacity, it matched in order--1, 2, 3--in terms of lowest
vaccinated regions were the areas that had the lowest amount of
beds and the highest rates, case rates of COVID.
Mr. Foster. This is a tragedy. Are there any states you are
aware of that have been more successful at getting their rural
populations vaccinated, any success stories at all, or is this
just a problem with where rural areas get their information
from?
Dr. Ezike. It has been a very consistent problem,
unfortunately. When I talk with my colleagues around the
country that have similar rural populations, part of it is the
demographic, some of it is politics. We know that everything is
political, but it has also become, unfortunately, partisan, and
that has made some people make a decision against the vaccine.
Even as people have seen family members become ill
themselves, seen the head of their nursing department die, we
have not seen people around them say, oh, I guess I need to get
the vaccine. So, we continue to work with our partners. We hope
that every day more and more people will make the choice,
especially as we are talking about third doses for people.
Those who haven't gotten their first are way behind, and it is
still not too late to get started on the effort.
Mr. Foster. Thank you.
It appears my time has expired. I will yield back.
Mr. Krishnamoorthi. Well, thank you so much, Mayor
Lightfoot and Director Ezike. Thank you for your testimony.
Panel 1 is now concluded and you are both--I was told here
to use the word ``released.''
[Laughter.]
Mr. Krishnamoorthi. I will just say free to depart. So,
thank you so much again for your wonderful testimony. Thank
you.
Ms. Lightfoot. Thank you.
Dr. Ezike. Thank you.
Mr. Foster. Thank you very much for everything you do every
day.
Dr. Ezike. Thank you, sir.
Ms. Lightfoot. Thank you.
Mr. Krishnamoorthi. I now invite the witnesses on our
second panel to approach the witness table.
[Pause.]
Mr. Krishnamoorthi. OK. We are joined today by five
witnesses for our second panel.
Dr. Helene Gayle is the President and CEO of The Chicago
Community Trust.
Dr. Omar Khan serves as the Co-Chair of the Muslim
Community Center's Health and Awareness Committee.
Ms. Martha Martinez is the Supervisor of the Pandemic
Health Navigator Program at the Gail Borden Public Library
District in Elgin.
Mr. Don Abram is a Program Coordinator at Interfaith Youth
Core.
And Mr. Ben O'Donnell is an Ironman athlete and coronavirus
survivor.
Thank you all for being with us today. I will begin by
swearing in the witnesses.
If you could please rise and raise your right hand?
[Witnesses sworn.]
Mr. Krishnamoorthi. Let the record show that the witnesses
all answered in the affirmative.
You may be seated.
Thank you again for joining us.
I should mention that the microphones are sensitive, but
please speak directly into them.
Without objection, your written statements will be made
part of the record today.
With that, Dr. Gayle, you are now recognized to provide
your testimony, and you have five minutes.
STATEMENT OF HELENE D. GAYLE, M.D., PRESIDENT AND CEO, THE
CHICAGO COMMUNITY TRUST
Dr. Gayle. Great. Thank you so much. I would really like to
thank you and Representative Foster, as well as Representative
Clyburn and the other members of the subcommittee, for holding
this field hearing.
This year the Chicago Community Trust partnered with the
Rockefeller Foundation and local partners to develop the
Chicagoland Vaccine Partnership, so I am going to focus most of
my comments around this partnership. This work is coordinated
with the work that you heard from our public sector, and in
that vein I want to say how grateful we are to have public-
sector leaders like the ones that you heard from who have done
so much to protect the health and well-being of our most
vulnerable residents and communities. They have had to make
some tough choices in order to keep us all safe and healthy,
and to make sure that equity was at the center of this
response.
However, still, although vaccines are widely available and
effective, many Chicagoans, as you heard, particularly Black
and Latinx residents, remain unvaccinated. That is why we
launched the Chicagoland Vaccine Partnership, which is a
collaboration of more than 170 organizations dedicated to
building a healthy and resilient Chicagoland.
The Partnership recently made over a million dollars in
grants to community-based organizations who could get the
people that they work with every day vaccinated. These grants
supported a diverse range of organizations that are deeply
rooted in their communities, organizations like food pantries,
churches, youth boxing programs, and violence prevention
organizations, organizations that are not often thought about
as part of the public health response.
The program has developed things like speakers bureaus and
an ambassador program to help develop the knowledge base among
trusted messengers. We have hosted convenings with public
health departments and community leaders to answer community
members' questions. We have begun a program to help community
members gain access to public health careers. And now, with the
vaccines that we have talked about being available for those
who are 5 to 11 years old, we have declared November a month of
action to educate families about vaccines and promote
vaccinations for all.
Despite these efforts, we know that disparities in vaccine
rates persist. To better understand why, we worked with the
research group Mathematica to conduct a survey to talk to
people in our communities and hear what they had to say about
the COVID vaccine. Data from the first wave of this survey have
had some revealing insights.
First, most vaccinated responders listed doctors, health
care providers, scientists, and the CDC as the most trusted
source of information about the COVID vaccine, and most of
these who were vaccinated were motivated to get vaccinated to
prevent death and serious illness within themselves, but also
to protect their households and family members.
But for unvaccinated respondents, lack of trust stood out
as the largest issue. While nearly everyone knew where to go to
get a vaccine and how to schedule an appointment, most of the
unvaccinated recipients wanted more time to wait and see if the
vaccine worked, and many believed it was developed too quickly.
They also worried about getting sick or experiencing side
effects, and only about a quarter agreed that the vaccine was
safe or effective.
The unvaccinated did not trust vaccine information from
sources like the CDC, scientists, religious leaders, news
media, or government officials. Only seven percent reported
trusting Federal Government officials. Only four percent
reported trusting state and local officials.
In communities of color, and for Black Americans in
particular, we understand why there is that hesitancy, and Dr.
Ezike referred to generations of discrimination in medical
research and practices that have caused harm and distrust. So,
we understand why some of this longstanding hesitancy and
distrust exists. We also know that there are language and
technical barriers to accessing vaccines in Black and brown
communities.
It is clear that we need more than brochures, public
service announcements, and financial incentives. But equally
important, we know that we need trusted messengers, one-to-one
conversations, and persistence in education and empowering
hard-to-reach and skeptical populations. We need to ensure that
issues like childcare and paid leave are addressed so that
people can get the vaccine and deal with any potential side
effects. And we have to develop easy-to-understand messages
that describe how the vaccine testing and production process
was safely compressed into a shorter timeframe while still
validating and supporting people who do want and need more
time.
There is no silver bullet for building trust and overcoming
the obstacles that are faced in communities with lower vaccine
rates. We need to meet people where they are and build
solutions that meet their needs. We believe this vaccine
partnership can serve as a model to be scaled and replicated
more broadly and be an important bridge to building trust in
communities beyond this crisis.
At the Chicago Community Trust, we have made closing the
racial and ethnic wealth gap our highest priority. We cannot
have a thriving economy on the household, community, or
regional level if we don't do all we can within our reach to
prevent further harm from the COVID-19 pandemic. Ensuring the
equitable uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine is key to achieving
it. It is both the prudent public health response and a
critical first step toward a just and inclusive economic
recovery.
Thank you.
Mr. Krishnamoorthi. Thank you, Dr. Gayle.
Now I would like to recognize Dr. Khan for your five
minutes of testimony.
STATEMENT OF OMAR KHAN, M.D., CO-CHAIR, MUSLIM COMMUNITY
CENTER'S CENTER'S HEALTH AND AWARENESS COMMITTEE
Dr. Khan. Thank you. I would like to thank Representative
Krishnamoorthi and Representative Foster, again, for your time
and inviting us here to speak with you all and share in our
experiences on the ground at a hyperlocal level, as
Representative Krishnamoorthi had mentioned.
COVID has been an international devastation, and many local
communities have had to step up to disseminate complex
information and provide accurate and up-to-date statistics from
reliable and credible resources. It has been a challenge for
many, including our own communities at the Muslim Community
Center and The Douglas Center. I am the Co-Chair of the Health
and Awareness Committee at the Muslim Community Center, or also
referred to as MCC, which has locations in the northern Chicago
suburbs, as well as a location in the city of Chicago. These
locations include mosques, schools, and, at the core, community
centers.
I am also the Director of Health and Wellness,
Administration, and Development at The Douglas Center, which is
located in Skokie, Illinois. The Douglas Center provides
community day services for adults with intellectual and
developmental disabilities. Both organizations play key roles
in many people's lives, and both organizations had to
unfortunately close their doors to their patrons at some point
during COVID.
Challenges have been faced within numerous communities in
regards to comprehension of information, sources of
information, and hesitancy. Many have expressed concern of side
effects, long-term effects, and the speed in which vaccines
were developed. Unique challenges that we have identified
within the two organizations that I work with are language
barriers, cultural sensitivities, faith-based concerns, and
with the special needs population sensory challenges when it
comes to face masks, adhering to hygiene guidelines, and
comorbidities and chronic illnesses.
In both organizations we have built relationships with
local, state, and national-level clinical personnel and
entities that are credible and have been providing ongoing
information and guidance that we have then relayed in relevant
and consumable manners for the given communities. We have had
numerous successes over time as we have catered to the needs of
the various communities, some of which include immigrant and
refugee populations. The unique challenges we have identified
with those communities in particular have been trust, language
barriers, literacy challenges, and cultural nuances.
The greater successes for both organizations include COVID
vaccines for qualifying children and adults through MCC has
been an estimated 2,000 patrons and community members. At The
Douglas Center, an estimated 98 percent of our participants,
again that are individuals with special needs, have been fully
vaccinated against COVID.
We aim to continue in providing support for our community
members through information, conversations, and actions. Thank
you again.
Mr. Krishnamoorthi. Thank you, Dr. Khan.
Ms. Martinez, I now recognize you for five minutes of
testimony.
STATEMENT OF MARTHA MARTINEZ, MANAGER, PANDEMIC HEALTH
NAVIGATOR PROGRAM (GAIL BORDEN PUBLIC LIBRARY DISTRICT)
Ms. Martinez. OK. Good afternoon and thank you for the
invitation to both of you for today.
I supervise the Elgin Area Pandemic Assistance Team at the
Gail Borden Library in downtown Elgin. My team consists of four
community health workers: Anamaria Mora, Chas Sirridge, Luz
Purcell, and Sue Tuominen. We are part of the Illinois Pandemic
Health Navigator Program that is funded through a grant by the
Illinois Department of Public Health and administered by the
Illinois Public Health Association.
We are charged with helping those that have been impacted
by COVID, specifically the underserved. That might be the
elderly or others that lack access to the Internet, a computer,
or a smart device. We work in a very diverse community in
Elgin, with significant brown populations. Clients are relieved
when they are able to come in and speak to us in Spanish. We
also serve the houseless community that visits the library
regularly. All of the above are residents that are in need of
assistance.
We partner with the local health department to work with
COVID-positive patients who may need services while they are
under quarantine. We provide food deliveries, disinfectants,
diapers, and we have even delivered dog food.
We can be reached in several ways. We have a published
number for all to call us. We have an email address and a web
page. We also staff a table in the library lobby for those that
prefer to walk in and speak to someone directly. Many are
looking for financial assistance, and we help to connect them
with other community-based organizations that have funding for
such requests.
Early in the year when vaccine appointments were hard to
come by, we assisted in scheduling hundreds of appointments. As
the vaccine requests dwindled, we moved to outreach work by
participating in local community events and making our
community aware of our services. We have also hosted many
vaccine clinics at the library, and we will be hosting one this
Saturday with DNA Healthcare, and we will be offering the
boosters as well as the new children's vaccine.
We have helped with lost vaccine cards. We have answered
questions about the vaccine, and now the boosters. Our
availability via multiple channels has allowed us to keep up
with the pulse of the community, both vaccinated and
unvaccinated.
Gail Borden Library is a trusted entity in our community.
People know to come there when they need help, and the staff is
great at providing that assistance. Our pandemic team fell
right into place here. We take a nonjudgmental approach with
our clients and try to match them with the services that they
need.
Through familiarity with our daily presence, we too have
become trusted advisors in the community. We continue to
promote vaccination in a respectful, non-confrontational
manner. We have had many clients stop by to thank us for our
help.
I would like to share some experiences.
We helped an 85-year-old man living by himself who was
looking for a COVID test. Most appointments are done online,
and he didn't know how to use a computer or a smart phone. We
made the appointment for him close to home. He didn't use
email, but he told us that he could access texting. We took a
picture of his ticket and sent it to him. He was incredibly
thankful for the assistance. While that was simple for us, it
was challenging for him.
Another case we had was a family of eight that came to us
in the 11th hour. They were desperate because they were facing
an eviction notice that very same week. We worked closely with
them to secure funding and to get them back on track with their
rental payments. They too were happy to be able to stay in
their home.
Our team members have literally driven through tornadic
winds to deliver medications. They have brought victims of
abuse to the local crisis center. They have secured temporary
shelter for a client whose utilities were turned off amid a
heat wave. They have delivered food to families with empty
cupboards, and they were welcomed by children peering through
the window whose faces lit up when they caught a glimpse of the
ice cream bars at the top of their delivery.
We know we have helped many people negatively impacted by
COVID. We hope to continue with this work. We hope that we
continue to be funded for this work. Special thanks to Denise
Raleigh and her wonderful team at the library, for they have
supported us throughout this project. Thank you.
Mr. Krishnamoorthi. Thank you, Ms. Martinez.
Mr. Abram, you are now recognized for five minutes of
testimony.
STATEMENT OF DON ABRAM, PROGRAM MANAGER, INTERFAITH YOUTH CORE;
BEN O'DONNELLO'DONNELL, CORONAVIRUS SURVIVOR
Mr. Abram. Good afternoon. Thank you for the opportunity to
share my own lived and professional experiences with this
committee, and for the opportunity to highlight the
indispensable role that faith-based communities occupy in the
local response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. My name is Don
Abram and I am a Black queer minister from the south side of
Chicago. As a spiritual son of the Black church and a native of
the far south side Roseland neighborhood, the role of faith is
central to my own story.
I grew up in a hand-clapping, toe-tapping Black church only
minutes from my childhood home. Throughout my life, the church
has served as a spiritual refugee in times of trouble and as a
resource in the midst of material and financial need. In
moments of both crisis and celebration, the church has proved
itself to be a trustworthy, reliable, and present help to my
family, my community, and I.
While the particularities of my story are unique, the
powerful role of faith-based communities in the lives of
everyday Americans is not. Across the city of Chicago and this
country, mosques, churches, synagogues, and temples are more
than houses of worship. They act as community hubs, daycare
centers, food banks, and even access points for affordable
housing, critical social services, and quality health care.
This is especially true for low-income communities of color.
The robust safety net created by faith-inspired
organizations often cultivates pathways by which marginalized
communities can access life-saving resources. This is most
salient in the case of the faith-based response to the COVID-19
pandemic, especially in marginalized communities wherein
marginalized communities suffer disproportionately. I have seen
the role that faith-based communities occupy as a program
manager at Interfaith Youth Core. I have seen it up close and
personal. Early on in the pandemic, as the need for vaccine
education, literacy, and access ballooned, IFYC equipped
Chicago-based faith leaders with the tools to launch vaccine
education events and vaccine clinics in communities that needed
it the most. Rabbis, preachers, imams, and spiritual teachers,
from various faith traditions, came together to share best
practices and to equip themselves to be vaccine Ambassadors.
Partnering with medical experts, IFYC offered a six-month
training program that enabled faith-based communities to
maximize their impact on the ground. Leveraging decades-long
relationships within their communities, faith leaders became
instant trusted messengers, educating their parishioners on the
efficacy of the vaccine and assuaging legitimate concerns with
fact-based information. Coupling community events like block
club parties and Sunday services with vaccine clinics, faith
leaders were able to increase vaccination rates in their
communities and ultimately helped to save lives.
As we consider effective strategies to increase vaccine
uptick in the near-and long-term future, the role of faith-
based leaders must be centered. Investing in a vibrant
ecosystem of proximate faith leaders, in the city and across
the country, will ensure that our response to the ongoing
pandemic is culturally competent, contextually rooted, and
grassroots focused. Over and over again, faith leaders have
been proven to be effective bridge builders between local
communities and health care providers, ensuring a more
equitable distribution of vaccine education and vaccines
themselves.
While we celebrate the progress made on vaccine adoption,
particularly in marginalized communities, the need for
education and the dismantling of access barriers to vaccines
remains a persistent challenge. As I see it, faith leaders are
best poised to craft community-based solutions and outreach
strategies that target those hardest to reach. Sensitive to the
particular and niche needs of their community, faith leaders
are equipped to meet people where they are, and to address on-
the-ground barriers to vaccine adoption.
In my capacity as a Black minister on the south side and as
a faith-based organizer, I am confident in saying that faith
communities are critical to us defeating the spread of COVID-19
and to us healing from the loss of friends and loved ones. It
is incumbent upon us that we resource, amplify, and coordinate
with faith communities across lines of difference to further
our progress on vaccine uptick.
I would like to thank the committee for your time and for
the consideration of my testimony. God bless you and all of
those on the front lines of the ongoing pandemic.
Mr. Krishnamoorthi. Thank you, Mr. Abram.
I would like to now recognize Mr. O'Donnell for your five
minutes of testimony.
STATEMENT OF BEN O'DONNELL, CORONAVIRUS SURVIVOR
Mr. O'Donnell. Thank you. I would like to thank the
committee members for the invitation to this hearing today. To
be able to tell part of my story to keep others safe is an
honor. This pandemic and virus are still affecting so many
people, and if my story and ideas can help others, I am more
than happy to provide that.
My story starts in February 2020. I had a two-day physical
at the Mayo Clinic to ensure I was in good health before I
started my intensive training for my next Ironman, my second
Ironman Triathlon. Five days later, I went on a business trip
where I contracted COVID-19. I started showing symptoms on
February 29. On that day there were less than 1,000 reported
cases reported in the United States. I was admitted to the
hospital on March 9 and spent the next 28 days in the ICU
before being discharged, and over half of those days were on a
ventilator. I was the first critical case in the state of
Minnesota, and I was only 38 years old.
There are multiple reasons that I have the opportunity to
be here today. One of those is privilege. I was able to be
treated at one of the top ECMO centers in the world at M Health
Fairview at the University of Minnesota. I was privileged to be
the only COVID-19 patient in the entire hospital for that first
week and that all of their resources were dedicated to keeping
me alive. I had the privilege to have a wife who is a Ph.D.
chemist who could have data-driven discussions with the entire
health care staff on what treatments they might try for me. I
had the privilege to have a care team that was willing to take
chances and experiment. I was also privileged to have a body
strong enough to survive while they were trying to see what
could be done. And I was also extremely privileged to have
insurance and a job with disability pay so I was not affected
financially. I did not lose my home, I did not lose any income
due to this, and I know that I speak from a place of privilege
when I say these words.
That is the first theme of my story. It is privilege.
The other main theme of my story is science. When I was put
on ECMO or ECMO life support, it was thought that ECMO would
not work for the treatment of COVID-19. However, my doctors
felt that it was my only shot at survival. There was no known
treatment for COVID-19 yet, so my care team searched the
literature and found the best treatments that they could at
that time. If my family or doctors waited until there was
something 100 percent effective, I would not be here today. As
it is, I was the first person in North America to be put on
ECMO while suffering from COVID and survive. Now there have
been thousands. Also, I was able to recover and complete
another Ironman Triathlon last May.
I could spend long minutes talking about the primal fear I
had when my intubation tube was blocked and needed to be
removed and deprived me of oxygen for minutes before it was put
back in. I could talk about the hallucinations while sedated
that two years later are still crystal clear in my memory and
probably will be forever. But fear will not help us in this
situation. Fear will not help us to get people to get
vaccinated. We cannot use it as a tactic to persuade people
that vaccination is necessary.
What we need is proper discourse without fear. We need to
address people's concerns with the vaccine, not their decision.
We need to enter these conversations with empathy and not
judgment. We should not judge people for the decision they
made, but rather challenge how they came to that decision.
There are many reasons for the decisions that have been made.
There are those that cannot afford to take the time away from
work to get vaccinated or to deal with the side effects, should
they have any. When the consequence of vaccination means not
being able to pay rent or mortgage or put food on your family's
table, the decision is no longer a simple science and fact-
based decision. These are the impossible decisions. When we
bring empathy to the table, we discuss the barriers and how to
overcome them. Some of these barriers have nothing to do with
hesitation but rather ability. We need a way to combat this
lack of privilege. Once we do that, we can discuss the next
steps. And to me, the next step, which has been my message
since my experience, is to follow the science.
We have plenty of information and misinformation. We have
plenty of people blaming or pointing fingers at others in order
to get their point across. The one phrase we throw around too
much is to ``do your own research.'' This is dangerous. My
background is that of a scientist. I have a Master's degree in
Organic Chemistry from the University of Notre Dame. I know
science and research very well. I spent the first decade of my
career developing in-vitro diagnostic tests. I even helped a
colleague develop one of the tests, IL-6, that helped identify
the cytokine storm that saved my life. I have spent my entire
career in science, but I am not a COVID-19 expert. I have no
qualifications to do any research on this topic, and I have no
capability to do my own research.
One thing my background does allow me to do is read and
understand the research and to put it into a translatable
format for a general audience. Too often, a single line or a
research article is taken out of context and used to declare
the entire article or research study really meant something
contrary to its findings. The world has a large number of
people that are creating and sharing misinformation. What we
don't have is enough people who are translating the research in
full so that it can be consumed by the general population.
In order to combat vaccine hesitancy, we cannot push the
science. We need to bring empathy to the discussion to
determine a way to allow everyone to follow the science.
Thank you.
Mr. Krishnamoorthi. Thank you, Mr. O'Donnell.
I now recognize myself for five minutes of questions.
Dr. Gayle, you have made a tremendous number of investments
during the pandemic. What would you say was the investment with
the highest ROI, so to speak, especially with regard to
vaccinations?
Dr. Gayle. Yes. Well, I think this panel has spoken very
eloquently to the investment in community-based efforts, and I
think if I were to say where we could scale up and do more, it
is in these kinds of efforts where people--again, going back to
the survey that I talked about, the unvaccinated, the issue of
trust is the biggest barrier. It is not anymore the access, it
is not anymore the knowledge of where to get vaccinated. It
really is this issue of trust. And so I think it is by
investing in people who know their communities both within the
health system, public health messengers, community-based care
providers, but also organizations that help people when they
are not just focused on COVID, these are the organizations that
have stood with these populations throughout, and these are the
organizations that they trust.
We talked about the role of faith institutions, for
instance. We are involved with, as I mentioned, food pantries,
other kinds of community-based organizations. These are the
organizations that people trust. They know how to speak in ways
that resonate for those populations. And I think the biggest
thing is we have to realize that there is no one magic bullet
and that building trust takes time. But building trust is built
on meeting people where they are and making sure that we are
also thinking about the broader ways in which their health,
their households are affected, and being able to give them a
sense that they are cared about in a holistic way I think is
why these community-based efforts have made such a big
difference.
Mr. Krishnamoorthi. Got it.
Mr. Abram, is there something that we have learned in
talking to people about taking the COVID vaccine that could be
applicable in any other area where we have trouble
communicating, whether it is violence prevention or any other
thing? I am just curious.
Mr. Abram. I think so, and at the heart of what it is that
we have done at IFYC is hold space for concerns and to approach
the conversation with humility, recognizing that community
members and those who work and live alongside them know more
about the barriers that exist, know more about the
particularities of concerns that come up in the community, and
this is something that can be translated across issues, making
sure that we create infrastructures wherein community can
provide feedback to those who have resources, and we can, in
real time, pivot and adjust as needed, because we created space
for community partners to really show up and ask questions that
they need answered.
Mr. Krishnamoorthi. Got it.
Ms. Martinez, I am always impressed by Gail Borden Library.
It is really a gem in terms of our library system. I am
curious, in your outreach to people, have they also become more
attached to the library because of your efforts with regard to
getting them to take the vaccine and doing other things with
the pandemic?
Ms. Martinez. I believe so, because many of the people,
especially early on, when people were on the fence about taking
or not taking the vaccine, I think just through seeing us there
day in and day out, we I think inspired some confidence in
them. We would have discussions, we would answer their
questions, and I think all of that contributed to getting many
more people to take the vaccine. And as I mentioned earlier,
just being able to speak in a language to people also gives
them a sense of relief and comfort and the ability to be able
to ask all their questions and get answers.
Mr. Krishnamoorthi. Yes.
Dr. Khan, is there anything unique to certain minority
communities--let's just take the example of the Muslim American
community--that we should be aware of in terms of vaccine
confidence or the lack thereof?
Dr. Khan. Yes. Again, when speaking to a number of the
barriers that we have been able to identify, language, as was
mentioned, has been an important factor. When you think about
some of the conservative aspects, when we created the vaccine
clinics at the mosques in the gym spaces, we were aware of some
individuals who may want same-sex individuals providing the
vaccine for them, creating a privacy space for some individuals
who may not feel comfortable lifting up their shirts or
removing their shirts, things like that.
So, we have had to identify those and address those.
Again, there are the faith-based concerns, is this
something permissible within our faith to get, what was used to
make this, were there animal byproducts that were used, things
like that. We have had to have conversations with religious
leaders in collaboration with health care professionals to help
disseminate some of that information.
So, it has been very important to identify, again, some of
these barriers and speak to those things in particular.
Another challenge that I have come across more recently
when I spoke about refugee and immigrant populations, things
like that, something that we are going to have to really work
hard on is a couple of weeks ago, in having a conversation with
one of the community centers that we work with, we realized
that there is no particular written language for one of the
communities that we work with, one of the refugee communities
that we work with. How is that communication happening? It is
not something that they are reading online or within social
media. A lot of it is that verbal communication, the literacy
issues.
So, those are things that we are trying to work on,
translate that via audio, simplify the language, and make sure
that people are getting the information that they need.
Mr. Krishnamoorthi. Thank you.
Congressman Foster?
Mr. Foster. Thank you. I guess I would like to start by
echoing my thanks to Ms. Martinez for everything that Gail
Borden Library does in the community. I have very fond memories
from representing Elgin for several years, 10 years ago now.
You have been a beacon of hope and assistance for people in the
Elgin community for a long time.
Ms. Martinez. Thank you, sir.
Mr. Foster. I would like to speak a little bit about
vaccine hesitancy among parents of young children. Last week we
achieved a significant milestone in our Nation's fight against
the coronavirus when the first coronavirus vaccine was
authorized for 5-to 11-year-old children. Yet, one recent study
found that only three out of 10 parents of kids between 5 and
11 plan to vaccinate their children immediately. Misinformation
is a problem that can harm children even if it comes through
their parents.
Dr. Gayle, is there a misconception among some parents that
the coronavirus is just like the flu and that their children
are unlikely to be affected?
Dr. Gayle. Well, I think a lot of the information that came
out early on that suggested that children were less likely to
get sick if they got the coronavirus did make parents think
that this was a less serious issue for children, and I think
that has persisted and in some ways remains a barrier. So, I
think the reason why we have to not have parents' hesitancy
multiplied through their children, get the information out,
make it very clear why it is so important. We saw what happened
to our educational system, where children were not able to have
the kind of access to education as a result of this. This is
such a huge, huge step forward to be able to now get children
vaccinated safely and having the data to show that it is safe,
that it is effective, and that it can make a huge impact on
households.
One of the things parents sometimes are not taking into
consideration is that the risk of their child is then
transferred to them and the rest of their household. So, I
think we have a lot of education to do and a lot of correcting
of misinformation about the impact both at an individual level
and, as we were talking about earlier, that this is not just
about an individual, this is about our communities. This is
about how do we protect our community more broadly than just
the impact on the individual. Children have a huge role to play
in that, and I think we have got to do it, and that is why we
have dedicated November as vaccination month, to get this
information out to parents so that they can be part of
protecting whole communities while they protect their
children's health, as well.
Mr. Foster. And this is not only an issue for young kids.
Also, it is an issue in utero, because there is lots of
evidence that it is very bad for the mother and the child to
get COVID, and no evidence at all that the vaccine itself poses
a risk to a child.
Dr. Gayle. Pregnant women are going to have more serious
consequences if they contract COVID. So, it is an incredibly
important issue.
Mr. Foster. That is right. So, I understand that anecdotes
are not data, but I would like to present one anecdote.
This is my grandson here. I became a grandfather on April
1. And my grandson, who shares my name, was born of a
vaccinated mom, and he is healthy and happy. And not only that,
he sleeps through the night.
[Laughter.]
Mr. Foster. So, maybe that is another reason to vaccinate
here, get mothers to vaccinate their kids.
[Laughter.]
Mr. Foster. But, Mr. O'Donnell, as a scientist and a
coronavirus survivor and a parent of a young daughter, you have
an important perspective on this. What would you say to a
parent who said that they didn't need a vaccine, didn't need to
vaccinate their kids, because the coronavirus is less likely to
be a big deal for the young and healthy?
Mr. O'Donnell. I was young and healthy when I caught COVID,
and I ended up in the hospital for 28 days. I know that my
five-year-old daughter is excited in asking when she can get
vaccinated, as well. So for me, we can't get to a normal
everyday life, and we never know what we have genetic
predisposition-wise to know if we are going to be completely
fine or if you will end up getting severe side effects, whether
you are five years old or you are 50 years old. With that lack
of knowledge out there, the only way we can combat that is that
we know the vaccine works, and we have to explain how it works
for people and for their children.
Mr. Foster. Thank you.
I guess I am out of time, so I will yield back.
Mr. Krishnamoorthi. Thank you, Congressman Foster.
Mr. O'Donnell, I wanted to ask you about this ECMO
treatment. Tell us a little bit about that. I think for some
folks--I have heard of it but I am not terribly familiar, and I
think others would want to learn more about that.
Mr. O'Donnell. So, ECMO treatment is extra-corporeal
membrane oxygenation. It is where they take the blood from your
body and they pump it through an external machine to put oxygen
back into it because my lungs were so full of fluid that they
could not oxygenate my blood itself. It is a tube probably
about the size of my thumb that gets inserted into your jugular
to your heart to pump blood through it. All of your blood gets
pumped through it about every two minutes.
Mr. Krishnamoorthi. I think this is a treatment that a lot
of hospitals have provided, but a lot have not, as I understand
it. Go ahead.
Mr. O'Donnell. It is a very rare treatment. Right now, I
have moved to Canada, and the province that I live in only has
one machine or two machines in the entire province. It is a
high-risk operation and procedure, and there aren't many
machines globally. The U.S. has a very large number of them,
but there aren't very many of them outside of major university
medical centers.
Mr. Krishnamoorthi. Got it.
Mr. Abram, what is the number-one piece of misinformation
that you deal with, with regard to vaccines, that we should be
aware of?
Mr. Abram. Based on my experience particularly with faith-
based communities, one of the primary concerns is that the side
effects would be really overwhelming and could even lead to
unexpected illnesses or sicknesses, and that is largely rooted
in a lack of education around the vaccine and messaging that
suggests it is not safe or effective, which we know goes
against science. So, we have been working with faith leaders to
think about creative, innovative, and ongoing ways that we can
reiterate the efficacy of the vaccine.
Mr. Krishnamoorthi. But don't they--I guess in that
situation--at this point we are reaching 75 to 80 percent of
adults 12 and over who have received the first dose, so most
families have at least one person. Do they not see those folks
and say, OK, that person hasn't gotten sick since they got the
shot? Or is that not persuasive to them?
Mr. Abram. It is not persuasive, and I think that is
largely because of the fact that these folks also perhaps exist
outside of opportunities and spaces wherein they can ask
questions around the vaccine with specificity. So, getting
medical experts or folks who are knowledgeable around the
efficacy of the vaccine to be in conversation with them becomes
critically important. In that case, household conversations are
effective. But what we see is that folks aren't always equipped
with the specific medical expertise or knowledge to be able to
articulate the ways in which having the vaccine affects
ultimately your resistance to COVID-19.
Mr. Krishnamoorthi. Within the Spanish-speaking community,
Ms. Martinez, who do you think are the most trusted messengers
for building vaccine confidence?
Ms. Martinez. Certainly primary care doctors are.
Mr. Krishnamoorthi. Who speak Spanish?
Ms. Martinez. Who speak Spanish, yes, and also the clinics
that they visit often, because many people don't have primary
care doctors. So, the local clinics where there are Spanish
speakers. For us, the VNA, the Greater Health are clinics that
people trust and go to. And certainly pastors are also
important in either helping move this forward or in holding
people back from taking the vaccine.
Mr. Krishnamoorthi. Are there some pastors who hold people
back?
Ms. Martinez. Well, in specific, I don't know of specific
ones. I have heard that there are people or pastors that have
not promoted it, and I think that is just as bad as not pushing
it, when you just hold back and don't talk about it, and then
it seems that it is unacceptable to go ahead and get
vaccinated.
Mr. Krishnamoorthi. Dr. Khan, the imams, how important are
they in spreading the message; and, as Ms. Martinez said, is
there a concerted effort to make sure they are vaccinated and
that they spread the message?
Dr. Khan. Yes, I think those are challenges that a number
of communities have faced, as well. Not all imams, a majority
of imams, have a medical or health care background to
understand a lot of the specifics. So, we had challenges in the
beginning as well of imams being able to share that
information. But that is also our responsibility, to help
educate them. As time has gone on, as we have been able to have
these conversations, as we are learning more, getting more
data, looking at the statistics and information, we are able to
educate those community leaders.
We have Friday prayers. In Friday prayers, it is the imams
that stand before the entire group that is there and speak to
them and provide guidance and advice and things along those
lines. It is complete silence throughout the mosque while they
are listening to them. So, it has been very important to have
those religious leaders and faith-based leaders speak to this
and assure the individuals from a faith-based perspective that
it is permissible. There are, again, a number of other
challenges that come after that when we talk about safety,
efficacy, and things along those lines. But, yes, it has been
very important for the faith-based leaders to address this
head-on.
Mr. Krishnamoorthi. Got it. Thank you.
Congressman Foster?
Mr. Foster. Thank you. I guess there is another thing that
we run into from time to time that is related to the faith-
based community, which is that you will be trying to convince
someone to get vaccinated and at the end they say, ``I will
just leave it up to God.''
Mr. Abram or Mr. Khan, what is the answer to that? It is my
understanding that there is a strong tradition in the Abrahamic
religions across the world that you are supposed to take care
of yourself and it is part of what God expects from you, and
yet you find people using God as a reason not to get
vaccinated. What is your best answer to that?
Dr. Khan. Yes. I think that a deeper understanding of that
comes with a deeper understanding of faith. We have heard those
exact phrases from a number of individuals. And when you look
at actual scripture, and we speak about the Prophet Mohammad,
peace be upon him, and the things that he has said and shared,
you see that you are meant to care for yourself and take care
of yourself and those around you. It is a responsibility of
ours.
We also acknowledge and realize that we have been given the
intellect and opportunity to grow from an intelligence
perspective, and research has helped with that. So, we are
meant to acquire knowledge. When you think about the Islamic
faith, when we talk about the revelations of Islam in
particular, one of the first things that you look at is we
believe that the angel Gabriel had come down to the Prophet
Mohammad, and the first words he said to him were ``Read'' or
``Aqra.'' So, to pursue knowledge has been from the inception
of the conversation of faith for us.
So, it is really important that we help those individuals
who say let's leave it up to God, because there are a lot of
things that we don't just leave up to God, right? We take
action, and then we can leave things up to God after the fact
and pray for things. But it is important that we take action in
protecting ourselves, protecting our family, protecting our
communities, understanding that we are all one big community
and things that happen overseas will affect us here as well,
right? If we think about this virus in particular and where it
may have originated, people are affected across the world. So,
we are one big community, and it is important that we don't
just think about ourselves but those around us as well.
So, yes, it is very important that we continue to gain
knowledge and then take action off of the knowledge that we
attain.
Mr. Foster. Mr. Abram, how do you respond when you
encounter that?
Mr. Abram. So, from within my tradition in particular, but
this is across religious traditions, there is a sort of
theological framework that is centered on healing and treating
your neighbor as you would treat yourself. There is a moral and
spiritual imperative for us to care for the other, and that
often is an effective theological framework that we have seen
faith leaders use to advocate vaccine uptake and education,
saying we have a responsibility to care for our communities, to
care for ourselves, and the way that we are able to do that in
this particular instance is to ensure that we are using our
God-given intellect and ability and power to be able to
actually encourage the vaccine adoption.
Mr. Foster. Thank you. This is sort of what I mentioned in
my opening statement about there is a scientific question of
what is best for me, all right? And a second question that has
very little to do with science, which is what is my duty to the
rest of humanity, and this is crucial.
Dr. Gayle, the Chicago Community Trust and its partners
have worked very hard to figure out what will motivate adults
to get vaccinated, but are there any transferrable lessons on
how to motivate parents and guardians of children, 5 to 11
let's say, to get their children vaccinated? Is there a
difference in the messaging that is best for that?
Dr. Gayle. No. Actually, I think a lot of the same
messaging. It is just really focusing it more on tackling some
of the misconceptions about the importance of getting children
vaccinated. A lot of it is that this is new and parents just
have not had the information that they need. I think it is
really the same messages in many ways, but really tailoring
them so that people can understand the scientific basis for why
getting children vaccinated is important as well.
If I could just go back to your last question just for a
second, just to say that one of the things that I have seen is
most helpful with getting clergy to address this issue is other
clergy talking to their clergy peers. When faith leaders reach
out to other faith leaders, they can start turning their
beliefs around, and I think it is an important strategy. We saw
it work with the HIV pandemic. We are seeing it work with COVID
as well.
So, I think this peer-to-peer education is important not
only for faith communities but it is kind of what we are all
saying here, is that peer-to-peer, talking to people who you
trust is the way to really shift those beliefs.
Mr. Foster. Thank you.
My time is up and I yield back.
Mr. Krishnamoorthi. Thank you, Congressman Foster.
First of all, I would like to thank our witnesses for
testifying today and coming all the way from different parts of
the Chicago area. We have really benefited from your insights
and your answers to our questions.
Without objection, all members will have five legislative
days within which to submit additional written questions for
any of the witnesses, which will be forwarded to the witnesses
for their responses.
I want to say thank you again to the audience. Thank you to
everybody for covering this and for your attention to this very
important challenge.
Now this hearing is adjourned.
[all]