LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear hopes to bring a mass vaccination site to west Louisville. But neighbors are saying they need help now, some worrying they'll die before they can get the shot.
"I don't want to die. I don't want to lose my mother and my father. But that's what's going to happen if this governor of ours do not start down here," said Connie, who didn't want to share her last name, an activist who lives in west Louisville.
With tears in her eyes, Connie pleaded for better access to the vaccine.
"Governor, I'm looking dead at you. I hope you are hearing me. You are killing us down here," she said, calling on Beshear to open a vaccination site in the west end that will offer bus transportation for neighbors.
Lack of transportation and internet access are barriers that currently stand in the way for many in west Louisville to reach the city's mass vaccination center at Broadbent Arena.
"(Black people) are not dying, excuse me, like the white people are. We are dying in rapid numbers, so your first site should've been in the west end," Connie said, frustrated after countless attempts to make appointments for her elderly parents and neighbors.
"I knocked on (40) doors by myself, asking these old people, 'give me your birthday. Let me try to get you an appointment,'" she said. "For everybody I tried, it tells me they are no longer taking applications."
 The health department recently vaccinated several Black community leaders at the Louisville Urban League, hoping to show the community the shot is safe and effective.
"If you wanted to do that, you could've came and got me. I'm sick," said Connie. "You could've came and got my mother, my father, my next door neighbor or people around the corner. You did not have to use able bodies, and I have a serious problem with it."
While officials work to address the lack of trust for the vaccine among the Black community, Connie said many people who live in west Louisville are eager to get vaccinated.
She said she has reached out to the governor's office and Metro Council President David James to share her ideas.
"We are talking to the federal government about another site in Louisville," Beshear said on Thursday. "I'd like to see it over in Shawnee Park where we had a very successful testing site."
The health department is asking more people of color to sign up to volunteer at vaccination sites. Those who volunteer at least 40 hours are eligible to receive the vaccine. To sign up, click here.
To learn how to make an appointment to be vaccinated in Indiana and Kentucky, click here.
To check for available appointments at Norton's vaccine clinic at 17th and W. Broadway, click here.
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