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Yale Doctor Shares His COVID-19 Vaccine Experience With Spanish-Speaking Patients

A Hartford HealthCare worker administers a COVID-19 vaccine
Ryan Caron King
/
Connecticut Public

 

As Connecticut prepares to transition into Phase 1B of the vaccine rollout, there’s growing concern about reaching diverse communities who have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 illness and death. To address the problem, Dr. Jorge Moreno, an internist and assistant professor at the Yale School of Medicine, posted a video about his experience with the vaccine. 

He wanted to share his experience with Spanish speakers, some of whom distrust the vaccine and are hesitant about getting the shot.

“There was very little information available in Spanish,” he said. “There was little information available from Hispanic providers that could speak the language and that could relate and give their experience about the vaccine.” 

He talked about the side effects he felt, like soreness in his arm. And he shared other reported side effects, including temporary headaches, fevers and joint aches. 

Moreno said he’d been concerned about the participation of Hispanics in vaccine trials. So before he rolled up his sleeve, he wanted to be sure there weren’t discrepancies between trial results for Hispanic people compared to other racial groups. 

He said there weren’t. 

“The data shows that the vaccine had a 94 percent efficacy rate for Hispanics and for the general population,” he said. 

Most important, Moreno says, is that he wants to play his part in decreasing misinformation. The day after he posted his Spanish video on Twitter, he saw a patient who worked in health care and was still hesitant about getting the vaccine. 

“[My patient] had been sent an invitation for the vaccine, but she waited to speak to me directly to ask me my opinion because she didn’t know who to trust,” he said. 

His patient then scheduled an appointment to receive the vaccine and passed on the information to another member of her family. 

Brenda León is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms.

Brenda León is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms. Brenda covers the Latino/a, Latinx community with an emphasis on wealth-based disparities in health, education and criminal justice.

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SOMOS CONNECTICUT is an initiative from Connecticut Public, the state’s local NPR and PBS station, to elevate Latino stories and expand programming that uplifts and informs our Latino communities. Visit CTPublic.org/latino for more stories and resources. For updates, sign up for the SOMOS CONNECTICUT newsletter at ctpublic.org/newsletters.

SOMOS CONNECTICUT es una iniciativa de Connecticut Public, la emisora local de NPR y PBS del estado, que busca elevar nuestras historias latinas y expandir programación que alza y informa nuestras comunidades latinas locales. Visita CTPublic.org/latino para más reportajes y recursos. Para noticias, suscríbase a nuestro boletín informativo en ctpublic.org/newsletters.

The independent journalism and non-commercial programming you rely on every day is in danger.

If you’re reading this, you believe in trusted journalism and in learning without paywalls. You value access to educational content kids love and enriching cultural programming.

Now all of that is at risk.

Federal funding for public media is under threat and if it goes, the impact to our communities will be devastating.

Together, we can defend it. It’s time to protect what matters.

Your voice has protected public media before. Now, it’s needed again. Learn how you can protect the news and programming you depend on.

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Connecticut Public’s journalism is made possible, in part by funding from Jeffrey Hoffman and Robert Jaeger.