Helping Cultivate a Healthier Savannah Community Health Advocates Talk Candidly About COVID & Flu

SAVANNAH, Ga. - Dec. 13, 2022 - PRLog -- by Charice Stroud, Community Health Advocate

More than 1 million Americans have died of COVID-19. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Departments of Public Health report that nearly 34,000 of those deaths have occurred here in Georgia and nearly 1000 people have died from COVID in Chatham County.

Although COVID is now considered endemic, that simply means its presence is steady and somewhat predictable, like the seasonal flu. Both are serious illnesses that can lead to hospitalizations and death. The CDC estimates that there have been 9 to 41 million flu illnesses a year between 2010 and 2020 and about 5% to 20% of the U.S. population gets the flu every year.

That's why, as we are on the doorstep of National Influenza Vaccination week Dec 6-12, I'd like to remind you there is still time to get a flu shot to protect yourself, your loved ones and your community.

This is also no time to become complacent about COVID, especially now that the flu season is in full swing, and the respiratory virus known as RSV is on the rise.

These diseases are impacting families and health outcomes in our community in many ways. The pandemic disrupted the ability for some to leave their home, eat more nutritious foods or get timely care for non-COVID medical conditions. Some people died sooner than they otherwise would have. Others continue to struggle with serious health issues, and that seems to be especially problematic in Savannah's Black and Latinx communities.

During the bleakest days of the COVID pandemic, many of these communities lagged behind the general population in vaccine acceptance. People were skeptical of the vaccine's safety, didn't know how to get it, or were afraid of the potential cost.

That is why I decided to attend a "listening session" in the summer of 2021 that Healthy Savannah and the YMCA of Coastal Georgia developed utilizing a supplemental Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) grant from the CDC to provide a safe environment for Black and Hispanic Savannahians to voice their thoughts, concerns, and questions about the COVID-19 vaccine.