State and city officials, including Gov. Larry Hogan and Mayor Brandon Scott, launched a public education campaign Friday urging Maryland residents to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

They said in a press conference at Camden Yards the GoVAX campaign would tackle the hesitancy among Black and Brown communities to get vaccinated.

Scott urged people of color to trust the vaccine, acknowledging that hesitancy is rooted in historical medical abuses. 

Communities of color are also less likely to have access to vaccines. So far, they’ve been getting them at lower rates. 

“We have to and we must continue to battle this public health pandemic through a lens of equity,” Scott said.  

Community leaders like Bishop Walter Scott Thomas, the pastor of New Psalmist Baptist Church in Baltimore, said he will work with the campaign to build trust. 

“We haven’t seen our children and our grandchildren in any close way,” Thomas said. “But now through the vaccine, we have an opportunity to do those things that matter so much to us.”