What COVID-19 survivors relate about the experience, especially those whose lives were on the line and experienced lengthy hospital stays, is sobering.

Not just sobering but invaluable—a lesson about the importance of being vaccinated.

As Emory Healthcare makes vaccinations as widely available as possible, its message is amplified when community members such as Anetrice Terry step up to tell their story.

Terry conveys the difficulty of “fighting for my life” during a month-long hospital stay. She was one level removed from being on a ventilator, too weak to walk to the bathroom on her own. Even now, she continues to receive physical therapy.

Grateful for her recovery, she is looking out for others, knowing that the best way to do so is pretty simple: get vaccinated.

“A lot of people think COVID-19 is fake, that it’s pneumonia, the flu, but no, it is real. It’s awful,” she says.

The “shot” heard ’round the community

Since December 2020, Emory Healthcare has administered more than 179,000 vaccinations. That’s an impressive number, yet there is so much more that Emory wants to do to help community members.

Georgia has only 38% of its population fully vaccinated, a figure considerably under the U.S. rate of 46.6% for fully vaccinated people. And that number is itself well shy of the estimated 70% of the total population needed to be vaccinated in order to achieve herd immunity.  

Cheryl Iverson, corporate director for community engagement at Emory Healthcare, recognized that Emory was but one part of the puzzle in determining how to get more Atlantans vaccinated.

Emory mobilized to bring vaccines to community members, which is why Emory Healthcare is sponsoring vaccination events in neighborhoods around the metro area.  

“We really need to get out into the community, so we are talking with various community groups, organizations, government officials, and working with these partners to ensure we set up in locations that bring vaccines to neighborhoods rather than asking neighborhoods to come to us,” Iverson notes.

For a recent, daylong event at Emory Hillandale Hospital, 253 people came out to get their vaccines, perhaps doing so as just another quick stop while they ran errands. But that is the point — to make vaccination an easily-checked-off item in the lives of busy people.

One effective strategy that Emory Healthcare followed was to set up a table in front of the hospital with a sign that said “Meet the Doctors.” Emory physicians Augustine Conduah and Victoria Green were onsite to answer questions, of which there were many, and to apply their expertise to increasing the confidence of those who still felt hesitant. In a short video posted online, Green emphasizes the power inherent in banding together as she welcomes attendees to “the community of vaccinated individuals.”

Speaking up for rolling up your sleeves

Location, convenience, friendly faces: Each of these elements counts a great deal, and Emory Healthcare has carefully seen to those critical details.

One friendly face was Kendra Price, government affairs manager for Emory’s Office of Government and Community Affairs. For the past six months, Price has been a steady presence in the community, known and respected for her commitment to, as she says, “bring these events to locations that facilitate vaccine access. Beyond hospitals, we have partnered with primary care facilities and churches.”

It is about having the right number and mix of trusted voices. U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson is also such a voice.

Johnson represents Georgia’s 4^th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives and was on hand at the Emory Hillandale Hospital vaccination event. Noting that the “hospitalization and death rate has been disproportionately borne by black and brown people,” Johnson went on to recognize Emory as “a longtime partner and trusted institution in our community.”

“When people know that Emory Healthcare is sponsoring the event, that gives them more confidence to come out and actually receive the vaccine. It’s happening right here in the community. You see your neighbors and friends getting vaccinated and that encourages you to come and get vaccinated as well,” he adds.

For Anetrice Terry, there was no shame in repeating herself. She closed her message to fellow community members this way: “Please, please, please, I cannot stress this enough. Get vaccinated; please get vaccinated.”