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The vaccine wall is coming, and it will take all of us to knock it down

Published

4 years ago

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PLANO, TX – Millions and millions of vaccine doses have been administered to Americans in a matter of months. This Herculean effort has brought peace of mind back to workers, students, teachers, families and entire communities, pushing us closer than ever to what health experts call “herd immunity.”

Herd immunity can be reached through vaccinations and the antibodies developed from contracting COVID-19, and when we reach herd immunity, this nation can finally return to normal. Hallelujah!

But we can’t celebrate too soon because there is still a major obstacle standing in our way. We are fast approaching a vaccine “wall.”

While we have plenty of doses available to go around and more in production, a vaccine wall means there are still those who are either unable to access the vaccine or unsure about receiving it. As we approach the vaccine wall, our ability to achieve herd immunity will slow down exponentially. Reports say we might have run into this wall already.

Having lost over half a million people to the virus in our country, it remains critical that we reach herd immunity to prevent more severe cases and deaths. That means we need to get as many people vaccinated as possible.

We know how to do it, but we need your help. As the senior pastor of St. Luke “Community” United Methodist Church and founder of Project Unity, I believe Scripture calls on us to love our neighbor. To show that love, we have been working to get Dallas vaccinated, and we want you to show your love by being a part of those efforts.

At Project Unity, we have been mobilizing the ingenuity, the resilience and the deep love within the Dallas community for years in order to build a better society for everyone, even in the midst of a pandemic.

Our programs, Together We Dine and Together We Can, brought people from every corner of the city to engage in courageous conversations about race. Together We Test brought critical COVID-19 testing sites to underserved neighborhoods.

Building on the success of these programs, we started Together We Vaccinate to bring thousands of vaccine doses to underserved communities in Dallas where the pandemic has hit hardest.

Our neighbors have endured so much, from sickness to death to extreme economic hardship. This pandemic has affected their lives in ways others will never be able to imagine. But vaccines are the ray of hope in the darkness.

As a pastor, I couldn’t imagine a better day to host a vaccination site than on Good Friday, and that’s exactly what we did. We wanted to make Good Friday good by making sure people who did not have access to vaccines could get them.

Thanks to the help of community partners like Catalyst Health Network, we were able to bring healing into the community. And more recently, in partnership with the Dallas Housing Authority, people were able to meet with trusted health professionals and get their questions answered. We also brought vaccines to our West Dallas neighbors through a trusted nonprofit there, Brother Bill’s Helping Hand.

None of this would have been possible without you, our amazing community, and where we go from here depends on how we respond collectively to the vaccine wall that is fast approaching.

To help your neighbors at this critical time, the most important thing you can do is get vaccinated. In the spirit of Together We Vaccinate, we need to work together to reach herd immunity, and the easing of restrictions on who can get the vaccine have made it more accessible than ever.

Partner with us as we spread the word about getting vaccinated. Volunteer with Project Unity and help others get vaccinated, too. This is all hands on deck.

When we look back on this moment in history, I believe we’ll remember it as a time of selfless service to our neighbors. You can help us make that a reality.

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