Door To Door In Miami’s ‘Little Havana’ To Build Trust For Testing And Vaccination

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Alejandro Díaz greets a cat on Oct. 23 at an apartment complex in the Little Havana neighborhood of Miami. He’s an outreach worker with Healthy Little Havana, going door to door to talk to people about getting tested for COVID-19.

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In their canvassing of a predominantly Cuban American neighborhood in October, Díaz (right) and another community outreach worker, María Elena González (left), spoke with Gloria Carvajal about how to get a COVID-19 test.

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At a November memorial to lives lost to COVID-19 in the Liberty City neighborhood of Miami, Rev. Richard Dunn (second from left) led a prayer with Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla. (left) and Miami Mayor Francis Suarez.

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A symbolic cemetery, in memory of neighborhood residents who have died from COVID-19, stands as a memorial in a field at Simonhoff Park in the Liberty City.

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A symbolic cemetery, in memory of neighborhood residents who have died from COVID-19, stands as a memorial in a field at Simonhoff Park in the Liberty City.

Verónica Zaragovia/WLRN

Dunn is also helping with a newly-launched effort to build trust in the COVID-19 vaccines among Black residents, by participating in online meetings during which Black church members can hear directly from Black medical experts. The message of the meetings is that the vaccines are safe and vital.

«It’s taken over 300,000 lives in the United States of America, Dunn said at the end of the meeting. «And I believe to do nothing would be more of a tragedy than to at least try to do something to prevent it and to stop the spreading of the coronavirus.

Churches will play a big role in the ongoing outreach efforts, and Dunn is committed to doing his part. He knows it’s an extremely contagious and serious disease — this past summer he caught the illness himself.

This story comes from NPR’s health reporting partnership with WLRN and Kaiser Health News.