SC DHEC and The Community Times  Form Public-Private Partnership To Promote Vaccinations in South Carolina

With the COVID-19 virus claiming over 100,000 lives a day and more than 15,000 people becoming infected per week in South Carolina, The Community Times newspaper has join forces with the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC) to help slow the spread of the virus.

“To help save our children and families, we have created a vaccination project that includes influential voices from across South Carolina to speak up and speak out on why every person in our state needs to be vaccinated today,” said Larry D. Smith, publisher of the Community Times newspapers and Magazines in Florence, South Carolina. Smith goes on to say since the first issue of the newspaper, over 37 years ago, the company has made improving the health of African Americans living in South Carolina a top priority. But over the last two years the COVID-19 virus has changed the way people in our state and around the world live, work, worship, and play. The virus has taken our children out school or forced them into home schooling, it has forced some of the traditional businesses to close, and it has left others homeless. The virus continues to make government and local leaders decide on when and where mask and social distancing should be in place, blurring racial or party lines. But the staff at The Community Times not only looked at the victims, they looked for solutions to this pandemic.

“We ask the hard questions to state and local leaders and the answer kept coming back to take one of the vaccinations (Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna or Johnson & Johnson) to protect yourself, your family, and our communities. So we asked SC DHEC how we could help because we wanted to do more than run ads in our publications while the death rate continue to raise from this deadly virus.” Smith noted.
Smith continued his team first looks to local government organizations to provide resources, not to only slow the spread of COVID-19, but to only to find fewer resources at the city or county level to support and keep residents, schools, and business safe. “We were hearing about billions of dollars coming into our state though cities, counties, nonprofits, medical facilities and school districts. However, with all the financial resources, we still have people dying everyday. Our hospital ICU beds are full and people continue to be afraid to leave their homes, even to go to work or to the store.

Back in January of 2021, Smith reached out to SC DHEC and got a surprise answer when he asked them to partner with The Community Times newspaper to promote vaccinations in South Carolina by using local doctors to share their message on why African Americans should get vaccinated. The project included leading healthcare organizations in the Pee Dee and on the Grand Strand region of South Carolina. The project was so successful that SC DHEC asks the staff of The Community Times to take this project statewide. Only this time it would include not only doctors but also community influencers sharing their voices on why everyone should get vaccinated. Then those voices will be broadcasted in media markets across South Carolina using the power of television and social media. To date, the list of leaders reads like Who’s Who in South Carolina’s African American communities, feature voices both young and old as they share their reasons for getting vaccinated.
The project includes Congressman James E. Clyburn (D) SC, Nelson Rivers, III, Chair of the South Carolina Legislative Black Caucus Pat Henegan, State Sen. Marlon Kimpson, Columbia Urban League CEO and President J. T. McLawhorn, church leaders and elected officials. The 30-second videos bring together voices from the mountains of Greenville to the low country coast of South Carolina, who, in some cases, are begging citizens to get vaccinated. This is pertinent, since South Carolina has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the nation, with only a little over 50% of our residents only having their first shot. But the partnership between the Community Times and SC DHEC is working to change the numbers in our state by encouraging all residents to get vaccinated by using the power of a public-private partnership, community influencers, print media, social media, and television to promote vaccinations in South Carolina.

If you haven’t gotten you Covide-19 shop we beg you to get one today. To many lives have been lost and too many businesses have closed because some people think they are smarter than the professional. If you are doing research or holding back it times to think about your family and community.