SYRACUSE, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) — After Upstate University Hospital Director of Geriatrics Dr. Sharon Brangman is done with her day of helping elderly patients over Zoom, she doesn’t log off her computer; she spends the rest of her waking hours helping clear up misinformation about the coronavirus vaccine, especially among the African American community.
“I started to hear from people, telling me things that were totally untrue based on information they got off of social media,” Dr. Brangman said. “I became very concerned they did not have the information they need to make a good decision.”
Brangman, who is Black, has been a guest on live streams hosted by church congregations and community groups which allows people to ask her questions and perhaps be convinced to take the shot.
She says there isn’t only one reason people are afraid to get the shot. She acknowledges her own hesitancy about a vaccine process that was named “Operation Warp Speed.”
The same science data that helped convince her the vaccine is safe is what she shares with others.
“I can’t stand by idly when I see something that can be addressed and if I can help, then I’m all in,” Brangman says.
