‘Do you have any questions about vaccinations?’: Action NC goes door-to-door in east Charlotte

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) - According to data, one east Charlotte zip code has the lowest COVID-19 vaccination rate in Mecklenburg County.

Mecklenburg County Public Health has held small events with churches and larger mass vaccination sites in the area, but the results are not where they want them.

Because of this, the health department trained volunteers with Action NC to go out into the community and speak to people at their homes about vaccine hesitancy.

On Thursday, the volunteers went door-to-door answering peoples’ questions and providing information on the vaccine and where to get it.

Robert Dawkins with Action NC spoke to one woman who is a mother of several young children.

She said she was not getting the shot because she already had COVID-19.

“What I’m trying to get across to people like her that specifically have kids is since kids can’t get the shot, it has to be your responsibility to get the shot to keep your kids safe,” Dawkins said.

Volunteers spread out across east Charlotte to break down barriers of misinformation leading to vaccine hesitancy.

“Sometimes you need reassurance,” east Charlottean Jasmine Johnson said. “You definitely need to be in the community.”

Jasmine Johnson says just seeing the volunteers at her apartment complex reminded her of her second dose.

“It was like, let me get on the phone ‘cause I gotta make sure I’m on that list,” she said.

At the end of the day, they’ll share what they learned with the health department.

“I do believe we will learn a lot from these efforts and then use them to inform the next steps as well,” Dr. Meg Sullivan, Mecklenburg County Medical Director, said.

Thursday was the first day of a 12 week initiative.

They started in east Charlotte and will expand to other underserved communities.

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