By Jess Mancini, The Parkersburg News and Sentinel
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The faith-based community can take a leadership role in encouraging residents to become vaccinated against the COVID-19 coronavirus, state officials said Monday.
“Many parishioners are watching the heads of the parishes, whether it’s the pastors or the reverends or the priests or the bishops and others, waiting to see if they feel safe taking the vaccine,” Dr. Clay Marsh, state COVID-19 czar, said.
“Certainly we would never want people to move against their faith and there’s different people with different perspectives, which we certainly will absolutely respect,” Marsh said Monday during the governor’s pandemic briefing. “But certainly these leaders of these congregations are so important to promote the safety and effectiveness of these vaccines that we have seen all of our country and our state, we’ve seen the numbers of older West Virginians who have been vaccinated dying at a much lower frequency.”
Church leaders can be role models in encouraging vaccination, Marsh said…
To read more: https://www.newsandsentinel.com/news/local-news/2021/04/west-virginia-officials-voice-faith-in-vaccines/
