[www.verywellhealth.com]

Published on March 30, 2021

Fact checked OK

On March 16, local health officials and interfaith leaders gathered at the Washington National Cathedral for a major COVID-19 vaccine event. To encourage vaccination among faith-based communities and in an effort to demystify the process, more than two dozen religious leaders of Christian, Jewish, and Muslim faiths got vaccinated in public.1

During the event, Melissa Rogers, executive director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, recognized the importance of faith-based organizations in helping more Americans get vaccinated. Because religious leaders are highly trusted individuals in their communities, faith can become a powerful tool in encouraging vaccination.

“We need to underscore that all of the ways that we can prevent COVID-19—vaccinations, social distancing, mask-wearing—are part of how we love our neighbor as ourselves," Rev. Debra Haffner, MPH, MDiv, DMin, a parish minister at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Reston, Virginia, tells Verywell. "We have a responsibility not just to ourselves but to everyone. As a Unitarian Universalist, we believe in science—and that means getting vaccinated and partnering with public health.”

Faith leaders are playing a critical role in shaping vaccine availability, accessibility, and acceptance in religious communities.

In religious communities of color, where vaccine hesitancy is often rooted in mistrust in healthcare systems, seeing faith leaders put their trust in the vaccine is a major motivator for them to do the same.

“I think it's important for faith leaders to encourage their flocks to be vaccinated,"

“It is essential for religious leaders to teach that science and faith are not enemies, but partners,"

“We are also using our Bus Ministry to go out and pick up members of our church and anyone in the community that needs a ride to our vaccination site,"

Last February, the American Muslim Health Professionals held a webinar featuring Anthony Fauci, MD, and medical experts from the Muslim community to discuss the vaccine and answer frequently asked questions.10

“I had a Zoom informational meeting with my congregation in February with health professionals from our church, and amazingly, over ten couples and many other individuals were persuaded to take the vaccine,” Moore says. “They just needed to be educated"