The National Black Church Initiative Launches Its 'Immunization Now' Program

We Hope to Vaccinate 2 Million African Americans

WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES, January 22, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The National Black Church Initiative (NBCI), a coalition of 150,000 African American churches constituting 27.7 million members, is launching the first edition of the "Immunize Now" newspaper. It is a comprehensive newspaper on the importance of immunization and the African American community. This is part of a 10-year immunization program that was launched by the National Black Church Initiative in 2020.

We plan to kick off this immunization project at Israel Baptist Church in the city of Baltimore on January 26, 2025, at 10 am.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), immunization is a process by which a person becomes protected against a disease through vaccination. This term is often used interchangeably with vaccination or inoculation. Vaccination is the act of introducing a vaccine into the body to produce protection from a specific disease.

Rev. Anthony Evans, President of the National Black Church Initiative, said, “When we launched this program in 2020, we knew it would be an uphill battle, but we did it in light of the fact that COVID was raging in our community and we had to do everything in our power to get everybody educated, vaccinated and empowered. We believe that we have been moderately successful, but there is a great deal of work to be done. This is why, year after year, we continue to create exciting programs to improve the numbers around immunizations according to CDC and NIH vaccine tables. We are excited to launch this new effort to vaccinate over 2 million African Americans in 25 city tours. This tour will consist of but not be limited to education, information, outreach, and vaccination and continuing to empower the black community. This year, we are activating the American Clinical Health Disparity Commission (ACHDC) to provide clinical support for this nationwide effort. We will need all of our federal partners, CDC, NIH, FDA, and NCI, to join us in this effort.

What are the Rates of Immunizations among African American Populations? African American adults are less likely than non-Hispanic white adults to have received a flu vaccine in the past year or to have ever received the pneumonia vaccine. In 2018, Non-Hispanic Blacks aged 65 and older were 10 percent less likely to have received the influenza (flu) shot in the past 12 months, as compared to non-Hispanic whites of the same age group. African American children aged 19 to 35 months had comparable rates of immunization in 2017. African Americans are 10 percent less likely to have received a human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine as the white population.

NBCI has mobilized over 10,000 federal, state, and local community-based clinics, hospital systems, the National Medical Association, the National Black Nurses Association (NBNA), the Association of Black Cardiologists (ABC), and the Association of Black Psychologists (ABPsi) to help us reach our goal to reach and vaccinate 2 million African American in this year. NBCI has also mobilized over 25,000 volunteers to assist with this.

About NBCI
The National Black Church Initiative (NBCI) is a coalition of 150,000 African American and Latino churches working to eradicate racial disparities in healthcare, technology, education, housing, and the environment. The mission of NBCI is to provide critical wellness information to all of its members, congregants, churches, and the public. NBCI, utilizing faith and sound health science and partners with major organizations and officials, reduces racial disparities in the variety of areas cited above. NBCI's programs are governed by credible statistical analysis, science-based strategies and techniques, and methods that work and offer faith-based, out-of-the-box, and cutting-edge solutions to stubborn economic and social issues.

Anthony Evans
National Black Church Initiative
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