'Very exciting:' Milwaukee nurse questions Biden on vaccine equity
MILWAUKEE - One of the guests at President Joe Biden's town hall at Milwaukee's Pabst Theater Tuesday, Feb. 16 is a registered nurse who serves as an assistant professor at the Medical College of Wisconsin. She asked President Biden about the racial disparities in health care and getting the vaccine to Black and brown communities in Milwaukee.
Dessie Levy said it was the opportunity of a lifetime. When her phone rang suddenly on Sunday afternoon, she briefly considered it spam.
"I thought it was a joke at first," she said.
Shortly after, Levy found out she'd be attending the town hall.
Levy, holds a PhD and she’s also a nurse/researcher working as an assistant professor at the Medical College of Wisconsin. She's also a past president of the National Black Nurses Association.
CNN says it built the audience for its town halls and selects questioners.
"We have seen less than 3% of Blacks and less than 5% of Hispanics given the total number of vaccines that have been administered to this point," said Levy.
That's the question she asked Biden at the town hall.
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"This was very exciting," said Levy. "It was a small quaint group."
Biden offered a three-minute response to Levy’s question, saying he wants to make sure more people in the Black and brown communities know how to register for the COVID-19 vaccine.
"I've committed to spending a billion dollars on public education to help people figure out how they can get there," said President Biden. "That’s why we’re also trying to set up mass vaccination sites like places in stadiums and the like."
Levy said she was satisfied with Biden's response.
"Simply because he addressed the elephant in the room, so to speak, about the perceptions both Black and brown individuals have in regards to research and things that are so new in terms of health sciences and development," she said.
FOX6 News reached out to the Republican Party of Wisconsin for comment on Biden's response to Levy's question. The party directed us to its comment released before the town hall which says:
"President Biden pulled a bait and switch on Wisconsinites. After disingenuously calling for unity, his 40+ executive orders prove that he wants to enact a liberal wish list – not work across the aisle. President Biden should only visit Wisconsin if he plans to announce that he is reversing his job-crushing cancellation of the Keystone pipeline and calling for schools to follow the science and actually reopen."
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