Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price received his COVID-19 vaccination Monday morning and is in high hopes doing so will encourage others in Black and minority communities to do the same thing.
"Too many people in our community refuse the treatment based on an erroneous belief about the infamous Tuskegee experiment. This virus and its emerging variants are too dangerous for a demographic that is already vastly underserved in terms of healthcare delivery," said Price.
Price wanted to clear up any confusion regarding the COVID-19 vaccine and hoped to demonstrate that it's safe to receive it and that it's needed to end the pandemic. He specifically wanted the Black community to know that this isn't the same as the Tuskeegee incident.
Want to Get on a Vaccine Waitlist?
County health departments have launched waitlists for adults 16 years old and over.
You can register to recieve the vaccination in Collin, Dallas, Denton and Tarrant counties. Links are below:
Waitlist Links: Collin - Search Waitlist | Dallas | Denton | Tarrant
You do not need to be a resident of the county to register for a COVID-19 vaccine in that county -- registration is open to anyone in Texas. For those without internet access, Tarrant County is also taking registrations by phone at 817-248-6299. In Dallas County, call the DCHHS vaccine hotline at 1-855-IMMUNE9 (1-855-466-8639). In Denton County, call 940-349-2585.
For a more detailed breakdown of who is included in each priority group in Texas, see this page from the Texas DSHS.
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"The common misunderstanding is that Black men were injected with syphilis. That is an erred notion that has never been widely challenged in the public square. The real travesty was that health professionals had a cure and refused to share it with men who looked like me," Price said in a prepared statement.
Price, the District 3 representative on the commissioners court over a large part of south and east Dallas, said he will do his best to get every community an equal shot at getting the COVID-19 vaccine.
"We need to understand, this is about the opportunity to be engaged and get what everyone else is getting. That's the key difference. It's imperative that we show leadership," Price said Monday morning. "I'm not fond of needles. I have needle-phobia. I appreciate all Parkland has done. And again, this is just important for the entire community but especially African-Americans and Hispanics who are, maybe to some degree, rightfully skeptical of the system and the government. But I needed to be able to show the way."
COVID-19 Latest
After receiving the COVID-19 vaccine Monday, Price spoke with the media and joked about how easy it was to get the shot
"I was surprised. I am not a shot person. I'm going to request her again, she was good."
Price wants everyone to get the vaccine to bring an end to the pandemic so that communities can finally start recovering.
"This is not about an individual. This is about a community. You can't deal with herd immunity if you're going to continue to be part of a holdout. You owe it to the family to get yourself inoculated so that we as a community are better" said Price.
Price said they'll be looking at areas of the community that need the vaccine the most and will work to get them the resources to receive it. He accepted that it's up to policymakers, like him, to get the vaccine to everyone.
"That's on us, policymakers. We're going to continue to do that based on the appropriation of the vaccine that we get in our community," Price said.
Price knows that the distribution is scarce, but he's positive that they will make it work somehow and take a look at the amount of their COVID-19 vaccines.
"The state cut back on distribution primarily because of FEMA coming in and what they call the equity plan. They cut both Dallas and Tarrant county. But at the end of the day we're going to continue to see what our allotment is," Price said.
Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins announced last week the county would also be receiving 6,000 doses this week and next of the recently approved Johnson & Johnson vaccine, separate from the state's distribution.
Jenkins said about 2,000 of those doses, each week, would be used to vaccinate people in special populations, such as the homeless, and inmates in the Dallas County Jail. The remaining 4,000 doses would be used at the county's FEMA-managed drive-through vaccination site.
