Events

HARLEM COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS

Boosting Holiday Cheer at Home During a Socially Distant Season

Unfortunately, ries of past seasons and light candles in scents many Amer- invite hope for future like evergreen and pepicans will be ones all season long. permint. You can even unable to celebrate You can even set up a try simmering a pot of the holidays with their video conference to en- water and add aromatic extended family and joy the camaraderie of ingredients to it such as friends in person this decorating with far-off cloves, cinnamon sticks year, making it all the loved ones. and rosemary. more important to boost • Deck the halls • Send season’s holiday cheer at home. with music. Add a dig- greetings: Set aside an Here are few festive ital piano to your hol- afternoon to compose ideas for getting into iday-scape to help el- and send holiday cards. the holiday spirit during evate the mood with This end-of-year tradithis socially distant sea- Christmas carols and tion allows you to reson. other seasonal tunes. connect with the people • Don’t skip out on Consider Casio’s line of you care about most and the decorations: You PX-S console digital pi- can help lend the season may not be hosting any anos, which have a strik- a touch of normalcy. houseguests, gatherings ing design that fit any While you may not or big meals, but this room, décor and mood. PHOTO SOURCE: (c) Sinenkiy / iStock via Getty Images Plus be making your usushouldn’t be the year A glossy top panel and al visit to relatives or to skip out on the full- unibody case evoke audio lets you connect erful stereo amplifica- don’t forget its deli- throwing your annual scale decorating you a luxurious acoustic your device wireless- tion system. cious scents. Your nose bash, there are many typically enjoy. Lights, grand in a sleek case ly to the musical key- • Add favorite aro- will know the holidays creative ways to make trees, garlands, stock- that’s barely larger than board, so you can play mas: Now that you have have arrived when you the most of the season ings and wreaths can the keys themselves. all your favorite holiday the sights and sounds bake that first batch of and create happy memevoke favorite memo- Integrated Bluetooth music through its pow- of the season covered, gingerbread cookies or ories for years to come.

Bill de Blasio Mayor Dave A. Chokshi, MD, MSc Commissioner

HARLEM COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS PANDEMIC Push is On to Increase African Americans’ Confidence in COVID Vaccine

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent @StacyBrownMedia

Former President dreth, one of the world’s Barack Obama has leading immunologists vowed to take the and an African Amerinew COVID-19 vaccination on live television. Dr. Ebony Hilton, a physician in the critical care and anesthesiology department at the University of Virginia Health, is also publicly taking the vaccine and documenting how she’s coping on YouTube.

On Day 1 of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, Queens, New York, critical care nurse Sandra Lindsay received the first dose of the two-shot vaccine at about 9:20 a.m. EST on Monday, December 14.

What Obama, Dr. Hilton, and Lindsay all have in common is that they are African American.

Intentional or not, the rollout has featured prominent Black people. can who sat on the U.S.

The mistrust in med- Food and Drug Adminicine and science in the istration’s panel that Black community re- approved the rollout of mains palpable for lots Pfizer’s coronavirus vacof well-founded reasons. cine.

“Truth and transpar- “There was an Afency are going to start rican American doctor with me,” Dr. Hilton that was in charge of declared. “I want you to the vaccine,” Baker said see me in real-time as I during a video call. undergo this process, “I felt more comfortand as my body adapts able that he and other as I have this medicine African Americans were in my body.” on the boards to come

Houston Astros man- up with the vaccine. ager Dusty Baker, an And he guaranteed that African American, also it wouldn’t be another urged Black people to Tuskegee kind of exget vaccinated. periment. And he urged

Baker praised Me- Black Americans to use harry Medical College the vaccine.” President Dr. James Hil- Because of the Tuskegee experiment, the notorious 40-year study that began in 1932, where U.S. Public Health

officials misled African Americans about their health status.

The study’s participants were infected with syphilis, and health officials withheld treatment like penicillin, leaving some to die.

“The Tuskegee Experiment ended ten years before I was born, and we still have heavy metal laced water in Flint, Michigan, we still have not fixed,” Dr. Hilton offered.

However, she offered optimism about the new coronavirus vaccine.

“So, join me, and I’ll be as open and honest as possible. We have one time to do this right, and I’m hoping it’s this time.”

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s foremost infectious disease physician, also championed the work of Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett, an African American scientist, whom Dr. Fauci said was at the forefront of the development of the vaccine.

“So, the first thing you might want to say to my African American brothers and sisters is that the vaccine that you’re going to be taking was developed by an African American woman. And that is just a fact,” Dr. Fauci remarked.

More than 300,000 Americans have died, and nearly 17 million have contracted the coronavirus. Some reports indicate that as many as 25 percent of COVID-19 victims are African American.

However, that hasn’t stopped the skepticism about the vaccine among many Black people.

“We saw early on that vaccine acceptance and willingness to enroll in vaccine clinical trials were going to be a major challenge,” Dr. Reed Tuckson, a former public health commissioner in Washington, D.C., and the leader of the Black Coalition Against COVID-19, a D.C.based effort to spread information about the virus and potential vaccines to Black Americans, told NBC News.

Over the past several months, the coalition has worked with sev-

eral Washington community organizations, historically Black colleges and universities, and community leaders, to share information about Covid-19 prevention.

They also drafted a public “Love Letter to Black America” that calls for people to be open to vaccines when they are available.

“The African American community needs to understand that 2020 is not 1930 or 1940,” Tuckson said. “There were no African American physicians or scientists or health policy leaders in the past. Today is a different situation.”

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INTRODUCING: MAPLE MAUSOLEUM AT WOODLAWN

A NEW SANCTUARY IN THE CITY

At The Woodlawn Cemetery, we are proud to offer families a variety of options for a final resting place – including pre-construction plans for our beautiful, brand new Maple Mausoleum. This cost-effective, environmentally friendly alternative to in-ground burial allows generations of loved ones to visit the very place we think inspired the phrase “rest in peace.” Take advantage of our advanced planning, pre-construction savings and gain peace of mind knowing your plans are in writing.

Our New Maple Mausoleum Will Consist of: •Nine outdoor buildings •Each houses individual crypts and niches for cremation •Elegant granite fronts •Above ground and easy accessibility makes visiting a pleasure •Located in one of our most stunning sections of the cemetery

Why wait to put your end-of-life plans in place? Call now and one of our very experienced, knowledgeable Family Service Associates will assist you.