Guilford County Emergency Management Director Don Campbell said that the county is now engaging in a full-on advertising blitz to encourage area adults to get their shots of COVID-19 vaccines.

 “We’ve got a contract with a marketing group that is working on a number of advertisements specifically focused towards the African-American, black, Latino and Latinx groups.”

He said those ads will be appearing on both radio and television.

“It is a multiphase process that will include many other marketing elements along with TV and radio ads,” Campbell said. “We’re continuing to refine what those are going to look like.”

Campbell said Guilford County government is also collaborating with several area non-profits that work with those groups to try to identify exactly what’s making people hesitant about getting vaccinated.

He said he wanted to discover all the barriers to vaccination so the county can remove as many of those as possible.

Chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners Skip Alston said this is a huge problem that’s not limited to minority communities. 

Alston said he wants to see the county conduct the ad effort in a “widespread” manner since there are also a large number of people in white communities who are displaying hesitancy toward the vaccinations.

“There are 35 percent of the people out there saying they are not going to get the vaccination or saying they are afraid to get the vaccination,” Alston said.

Near the start of the vaccination effort, Alston had his picture taken while getting the Johnson & Johnson one-shot vaccine.  He sent the picture to local media outlets, along with a press release, in an attempt to encourage other African-Americans in the county to also get vaccinated.