On August 18th, 2021, 24-year-old D’Anthony Dorsey, a marine biology teacher at Auburndale High School in Polk County, FL was admitted to Lakeland Regional Health Medical Center in Lakeland, FL, the same hospital in which he was born, with COVID-19. For over three weeks, his mother Lydia visited the hospital and whispered in his ear that they were all waiting for him to wake up. But he never did. He was unvaccinated. Lydia had to bury her healthy, athletic son because Florida’s government officials had convinced residents that masks were not preventing the spread of the virus. D’Anthony’s family is still divided on the safety of the vaccine.
On December 20, 2021, Randy Watt texted his daughter Jessica from an emergency room to let her know that he had tested positive for COVID-19. He too was unvaccinated. For 12 days, Randy fought for every breath while lying alone in his ICU bed in Akron, OH. Jessica and her daughter Jillian, Randy’s granddaughter, were watching Randy die on their phones, unable to comfort him when his doctors and nurses reminded him that his dire situation was preventable. Family members found out after his death that he was actively posting on a social media feed frequented by powerful, anti-vaccine influencers with political agendas and financial greed , preying on those who had been led astray by unverified information and falsehoods about the pandemic, many claiming that it is a hoax.
And now, all three women are mourning in silence for fear of being told that Randy and D’Anthony’s deaths are insignificant. The disenfranchised grief they are experiencing is becoming a mental health crisis in itself.
When it was first rolled out, Mike Brown and Fred Spry, lead barbers at The Shop Spa, a black-owned barber shop in Hyattsville, Maryland, were hesitant with fear and filled with a “hell no” defiance about getting “THE JAB”. But their long-time friend and client, Dr. Stephen Thomas, Professor in the School of Public Health and Director of the Maryland Center for Health Equity, worked with Mike and Fred to transform The Shop Spa into a trusted information center for COVID-19 vaccinations. Now, Mike and Fred are not only fully vaccinated, they are Certified Community Health Workers in the state of Maryland, saving lives “one-by-one in the Chair. Because people are treated with dignity and respect, even the “hesitant” come away vaccinated. Instead of the barbershop-talk spreading conspiracy theories the Shop Spa is spreading trusted information on COVID-19 and beyond.
