DENVER (KDVR) — Health care workers at the Denver Health Refugee Clinic in Lowry have now administered the COVID-19 vaccine to more than 660 non-English, non-Spanish speakers who are 70 and older and often refugees – a group of people who are especially leery of the vaccine.
The clinic’s three patient navigators spend hours every day calling patients and trying to dispel vaccine rumors and myths that run rampant in their communities.
“The rumor is, ‘Oh, if you get vaccine, then you’ll be manipulated, controlled by the 5G (cellular service),'” said Adrien Matadi, one of the patient navigators. “‘They (the government) plant something in the vaccine.’ These are the rumors rolling around in the community.”
Data from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment shows just 2% of people in the state who’ve received the vaccine classify themselves as Black or African-American. (Racial data is unknown for 16% of people who’ve received the vaccine.) And a new poll from the Associated Press shows 43% of Black Americans said they haven’t or probably won’t get the vaccine.
African-Americans represent 4% of Colorado’s population.
Because of the rumors and distrust, there are some days where Matadi may call 15 patients, yet only one agrees to make an appointment and get the vaccine.
One of them is Awadelkarim Ahmed Abbas, a 74-year-old refugee from Sudan who’s lived in the Denver area for 16 years.
“It’s very important for me, so I can get vaccinated against this dangerous disease, COVID-19,” said Abbas, with Matadi translating from Arabic.
Abbas, like many other refugees who go to the clinic for care, trusts and listens to Matadi because he’s also a refugee. He came to the United States 14 years ago from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“To make (a) long story short, I’ve been involved with politics,” Matadi said. “I was involved with special force in the Ministry of Defense.
“In Africa, whenever the government is overthrown…it’s not like here, a democratic transfer of power,” he said. “In Africa, mostly, if you’re in a position of power, you’ll be chased out and mostly killed.”
Now, Matadi speaks eight languages (he’s working on becoming fluent in the last two, Russian and Spanish) and uses his relationships with people at the clinic and at church to urge them to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
“I think I’m changing a lot of people’s views and how they think,” Matadi said.
Dr. Kristine Rodrigues, a Denver Health physician who helped organize the grant to bring the patient navigators to the hospital and its clinics, strongly agrees.
“It’s hard to put into words how grateful I am for them,” Dr. Rodrigues said. “It feels like they’re on the phone making a million phone calls, but they’re saving people’s lives.”