Black doctor among first to get COVID-19 vaccine at Novant hopes to set example

CHARLOTTE — Starting Thursday, doctors and nurses at Novant Health will start getting their coronavirus vaccines, and Channel 9 spoke one-on-one with a doctor who will be the first in line.

Dr. Yvette Rudisel has seen the devastation from COVID-19 first hand. Her cousin caught the virus in April and spent more than two months in the hospital.

Rudisel said she wants to set an example for the African American community by getting the vaccine.

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A survey from September indicated that Black Americans were the ethnic group most hesitant to get a COVID-19 vaccine, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Only 62% said they would, or probably would, get it. In the foundation’s survey last week, that number grew to 71%.

“Very excited,” Rudisel said about getting the vaccine on Thursday. “We have been talking amongst ourselves and every day we’ve been saying, ‘When are we gonna get our vaccine?’”

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Rudisel said getting the vaccine is personal after her cousin got sick earlier this year.

“In a hospital for 70 days -- on a ventilator for 40 days,” Rudisel said. “So for 50 straight days, every day, her daughter and I were on the phone to doctors. Every day, that was extremely stressful. We are amazed that she survived.”

Rudisel could not wait to join the list of those who have been vaccinated.

“So that gave me an understanding, I think, of what other family members go through,” she said. “When you can’t be there. You can’t see them. You can’t go to the hospital.”

[COUNTY-BY-COUNTY COVID-19 RESOURCE GUIDE]

Surveys show there is much mistrust and hesitancy when it comes to the vaccine.

“I think because I’m a woman of color, maybe my community will listen to me,” Rudisel said. “I tell them, ‘I think I would rather deal with the vaccine versus COVID. I know what COVID can do.’”

Diana Tejeda is a critical care nurse at Novant, and she will follow in Rudisel’s footsteps.

“I’ve seen firsthand how severely sick patients can get from having COVID,” Tejeda told Channel 9.

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She hopes that she will be able to influence her community as well.

“I’m a Latina,” she said. “I am a minority. I would just tell everybody, ‘This is way bigger than all of us. We need to do everything and just get rid of COVID, itself, and go back to normal life.’”

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Cox Media Group