Right now, vaccine numbers in the Valley range between 12 to 25 percent among African Americans, making that community more vulnerable than ever to the coronavirus.

That also means the Delta variant is more easily transmissable and even more dangerous for everyone.


"Our numbers are abysmal in the black and brown community," said Dr. Dee Banks, infectious disease physician for Northeast Ohio Infectious Disease Associates of Youngstown. "We need to do a better job of doubling down, drilling down full court press of getting people in the minority community vaccinated," she said.


That task proves to be a bit of a challenge as officials say there are two main groups that need persuading.


"The hesitency group serves some fear, some I just need some more information or need some encouragement," said Reverend Lewis Macklin, Pastor of Holy Trinity Missionary Baptist Church in Youngstown. "The reluctancy group, it's like you know what, you can miss me with that. I don't care what you say, how you present it, I'm not budging. Now that's a little more of a challenge," he said.


Banks suggests revisiting mask mandates if vaccine numbers don't improve.


"I don't know why people don't get it, just because the mask mandate has been lifted, it does not mean that we can't go back and have people to wear masks. That can still be on the table," Banks said.


Macklin says he applauds Governor DeWine's Vax-A-Million idea, but that splitting up the money, could have encouraged more vaccinations with greater probability for winning.


"He probably might've done better by providing greater opportunity. Say, for one week instead of giving one person a million dollars, maybe ten people had the opportunity to win one hundred thousand dollars," said Macklin. "This is not going away, and if we don't address it now, it's going to address us later in ways in which we're really going to be impacted negatively," he said.


"I'm not going to get to stop trying to be a messenger and get this message out because what choice do I have," said Banks. "I can't let this virus win. We can't let this virus win," she said.


These minority leaders tell 21 News, restrategizing new plans and frequent community outreach is what we need to get vaccine numbers up in the Valley.