LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Doctors say it's turning into "the pandemic of the unvaccinated" amid increased concerns over the Delta variant of COVID-19.
Health professionals are hoping to improve lower vaccination rates among Louisville's Black community.
"There's only 13.9% of the African American community that's vaccinated, which means the community is in danger of getting COVID, becoming very ill, hospitalized, on a ventilator and death," said Delanor Manson, CEO of the Kentucky Nurses Association.
"I advise anyone that doesn't believe that there's COVID out there ... yes, it is, and it's bigger than we are," said Grace Porter.
She said COVID hit her family hard.
"My mom was so sick, and me and my poor brother took care of her from January til March when she finally got well," Porter said. "She doesn't remember a thing."
At first, Porter's family wasn't going to get the shot, but after seeing the effects of the virus firsthand, they changed their minds.
"It's your right (to choose), but as someone who doesn't do shots at all, I went and got it done," she said.
It's why health experts were at Quinn Chapel AME Church in west Louisville on Wednesday. Delanor Manson, CEO of the Kentucky Nurses Association, wants to answer people's questions.
"First, you have to find out what the concerns are. What do people really want to know?" asked Manson, recalling a conversation with a local teen at a vaccine clinic.
"She said, 'I don't want it.' I said 'Why?' She said 'I don't want to get the magnets.' And I said, 'The magnets?' She said, 'Yeah I read about the magnets and how they will stick to my arm,'" said Mason. "So I said, 'Let me show you the needle, and you'll see the end of the needle is so small, that no magnet could get through there. And she said, 'Oh, that makes sense.'"
Dr. Mark Burns, who also served on the panel, said the Delta variant is more contagious. Although vaccinated people are less likely to get really sick, they can still spread it, he said.
"People who are fully vaccinated, unfortunately, with this Delta variant, carry just as much virus in their nasopharynx as someone who is unvaccinated," he said.
Health officials hope that answering questions could lead to protecting more people.
"The most important tool we have that would end this pandemic is to get vaccinated," said Burns.
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