Elyria Mayor gets COVID-19 vaccine

ELYRIA — Mayor Frank Whitfield was the latest local leader to get his COVID-19 vaccination Saturday morning. Elyria's first elected Black mayor rolled up a sleeve for the second time in the past year, overcoming his initial concerns about the process. This year was the first time he'd gotten a flu shot, and Saturday morning marked the first of his two coronavirus vaccines. "For a lot of people, I know that they've been apprehensive about getting vaccinated and I was one of them," he said. "But this is so life and death that it's more of a risk to not get vaccinated than to have the apprehension. So I'm excited to be able to get the vaccine" In Lorain County, and statewide, persons of color lag far behind their white counterparts in getting vaccinated. According to the Ohio Department of Health, about 99,900 Lorain County residents have started their COVID vaccines — but only about 14 percent self-identified as Black. Similarly, only about 14 percent of recipients self-identified as Hispanic or Latino. Statewide, the number is slightly higher, with about 16 percent of recipients self-identified as Black, and about 15 percent of recipients self-identified as Hispanic or Latino, according to state data. More than 3.6 million Ohioans have started the vaccine process. Whitfield said he's excited to take the step back toward normal, but understood how history lends itself to hesitancy in the Black community. Whitfield said the people who have been involved with the vaccine, like Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett, a Black immunologist instrumental in developing the Moderna vaccine, made the experience special. His daughter, Octavia Whitfield, agreed, having heard "Dr. Kizzy" speak at Howard University made the morning feel like she'd come full circle. A premed student at Howard — Octavia Whitfield understood too, and the importance of figures like her father in moving the figurative, and literal, needle. "The hesitancy is real and there's historically medical racism so it's definitely justified," she said. "So it's important that we speak out and say that it is safe and we know that a Black scientist worked to develop it so she wouldn't develop anything that was detrimental to her community. It's important that Black leaders step up and get the vaccine." Contact Angelo Angel at (440) 329-7248. Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.