I am an older white woman and am close friends with an “old school” 67 yer old black man. He is in a client heavy job, meeting multiple consumers off the street every day at work in a small office (no, the business does not mandate vaccines, but are supposed to mask but I have been there and most of the store shoppers dont wear them and no, our county mandated masks in stores only if you arent vaccinated, yeah right).
He is not a trumper at all, votes Democratic most of the time. He has health insurance and goes to the doctor when he is sick so he is also not anti-western medicine. This hesitancy is coming from somewhere else, somewhere I imagine I have never been or could understand.
I know the words coming from me will not carry the same weight, but I really want to try. I have other black friends but they dont know him and when I asked one of them to give me some words to say to him he told me it was useless because I was white.
I have already told him the hospitalized facts on the ground and how much more dangerous Delta is but he says he is still thinking about it...and Im worried the clock is ticking, especially because of his job, his weight, his age.
I need to try again; maybe something I say that you tell me will trigger something, anything to help him stop dragging his feet and get vaxed.
Thank you.