We want to take a moment to give a HUGE shout out 📣 to someone who has been on the ground making sure those in her community have access to factual COVID-19 information and vaccines!!!
Dorothy Oliver owns a general store in Panola, Alabama and as a central figure in her community capitalized on the opportunity to become a trusted source of information and an advocate for COVID-19 vaccination for those who visit her store and live nearby!
As the article below highlights, “She grew up in Cooksville, Mississippi, but in her decades living in Panola, Oliver has become one of the most influential people in the area. She is the vice president of the local day care center and on the board of the community center, in addition to owning her store.”
She notes, “Back in December, whenever vaccination started, I started with it, just about,” she said. “What I did was I went to calling all the older people around in the community, trying to make sure how their mind is and make sure they started thinking on going and getting a shot whenever it got ready for them.”
Dorothy has walked door-to-door 🏘️ to talk to neighbors about the vaccine and in the face of there being few vaccination sites nearby, started volunteering to schedule community members appointments and drive them to various sites.
The result? 🎉🎉🎉 Nearly ALL (94% and growing) of the 350 people in the Panola, Alabama community in which she lives have been vaccinated!!!
Dorothy, we are IN AWE of you! 🤩🤩🤩
You are a PANDEMIC SHERO! Thank you for reminding us that each and every one of us has the potential to pass along fact-based information, engage in conversation with those in our community, help people gain access to vaccines, and make an impact in slowing this pandemic!
Much like Dorothy when we started Dear Pandemic back in March 2020, we were answering COVID-19 related questions mainly for our own family and friends who we invited to follow our page. Now, over 1.5 years later, nearly 💥100,000💥 of you follow our page and have partnered with us to use the power of the share button to spread fact-based information to your networks!
THANK YOU Dorothy and THANK YOU Dear Pandemic community-we couldn’t do this without you! 💖💖💖
For coverage of Dorothy’s efforts, see this story from USA Today.
And a documentary on her work from The New Yorker here
