Emmanuel Rusaka is a problem solver by nature. He works as an IT Service Analyst for Centura Health, where he helps our associates who are having computer trouble. Recently, he decided to help solve a different kind of problem after hearing those he loves express doubt and fear about COVID-19 vaccines.
”I think the misinformation is quite great and I think that we just have to work together to eliminate that,” he said.
In service to Centura’s mission of nurturing the health of the people in our communities, Emmanuel is on a personal mission to clear up the distrust of the vaccines where he can.
When Emmanuel was invited to be vaccinated in December, he decided to make a video while getting the shot to show his skeptical family, coworkers, and others in Colorado’s African immigrant communities there is nothing to fear.
”If anything happens to me, don’t go for it. If nothing happens to me, please take your vaccine and protect yourself and others near you. It’s been over two weeks and I’m healthy, no problem.”
Emmanuel grew up in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in central Africa. Many people don’t trust medicine, due partly to civil wars that decimated the health care system. That fear has led many to die from disease, including viruses like Ebola.
Conflict led Emmanuel’s family to leave the DRC for Kenya, where he studied business and information technology. What eventually led him to the US, though, was interest in health care. Three years after migrating to America, he visited a job fair and applied to work for Centura Health.
“I’ve developed a passion for health care. My mother was a victim of counterfeit drugs in 2009,” and they made her very sick. Ever since he has wanted to help spread truth. Now he’s pursuing a master’s in health management at the University of Denver.
In the video, Emmanuel encourages others to get the vaccine while speaking three foreign languages—French, Swahili and a regional DRC dialect—that are spoken in some of the African countries that are represented in metro Denver. He made the video “to give hope to those who are feeling scared of taking [the vaccine]. I took it, and I’m alive.”
“I know people are saying, ‘Oh, it's so fast, vaccines take years to be developed.’ Scientists are working day and night to come up with a solution to this virus. It pains me when there is false information that gives people fear instead of courage.”
”So I feel like we really need to trust our system, we need to trust the process and be able to give it a chance to protect us. Let's do this for the sake of humanity, and let's get over it and go back to our normal lives.”
