Crenshaw County Deputy EMA director encourages African American community to get COVID-19 vaccine

Published 10:42 pm Wednesday, February 3, 2021

SPECIAL TO THE JOURNAL

My name is Randy Mahone and I serve as the Deputy Director for Crenshaw County EMA for anyone who does not know me.

This morning, I am here to address a critical topic related to all of my people in the African American community. I have heard a lot of fear in taking the COVID vaccine due to a long history of mistrust due to incidents in the past. This mistrust of the medical field throughout our community is at no fault of ours. Our people endured the Tuskegee experiment, and we do not want to allow something like that to happen again.

My position with the EMA department has required me to gain a full understanding of this vaccine and how it works. Also, I have to help research data on who all is getting vaccinated. According to information from the CDC, the African American community makes up 5% of those getting vaccinated.

I am reaching out to everyone to ask you to please take the vaccine. According to the information that I am researching, our people are more likely to get critically ill and even pass away if we get the virus. The vaccine does not contain any part of the virus itself, only a protein on the outside of the virus that it uses to infect the cells in our body. I have enough confidence in the vaccine that I am not only going to tell you about it, but I am going to post pictures of my taking it yesterday. It is sad to me that we have to have these fears because of what has happened in the past, but if we don’t take the vaccination, our people, once again, will suffer the effects of what the past has forced us to perceive. I am posting pictures of me getting the shot and a copy of my vaccination card. Please don’t let fear bring further harm to our community. Thank you for having faith, and if you have questions, you can call me at 334-304-2915.