African Americans

Only about 1 percent of people vaccinated in Sarasota County are Black. Advocates say the distribution process puts underserved communities at a disadvantage. They're fighting to change that.

Students at historically Black colleges and universities in Florida are finding different ways to cope with illness, grief, family obligations and uncertainty. For the multiethnic Black community, COVID-19 has been an added stressor atop another centuries-long pandemic: racial injustice.

Bakari Burns says the closest vaccine site in his district, a Walmart in the Washington Shores area, is only doing 20 vaccines a week.

A lingering mistrust of the medical system among many Black people is rooted in the infamous 20th century U.S. study of syphilis that left Black men in Tuskegee, Ala., to suffer from the disease.

It's part of a national initiative to reach underserved communities and starts with 250 centers around the country.

The latest Florida Department of Health numbers shows the percent of Black Floridians vaccinated so far is in the single digits.

The county hosted another community vaccination event, this time at a Baptist church in downtown Tampa. The goal is to make the vaccine more accessible in underserved communities.

Of the more than 1 million people who have received a coronavirus vaccine in Florida, about 5% are Black.

Black vaccine hesitancy goes back to history of distrust of medicine, say doctors and researchers. To help, it's important to empower people with knowledge to make their own choices.

The church, in the College Hill neighborhood of Tampa, vaccinated 590 people with their first dose of the Pfizer vaccine.