Dr. Stiffin was featured in a recent news article on COVID-19.
Dr. Rose Stiffin, Associate Professor and Chair of Health and Natural Sciences at Florida Memorial University in Mi- ami, says she knows Blacks have con- cerns about the COVID vaccines. “Blacks are hesitant about tak- ing the vaccine, because historically Blacks have not been treated well in the health care field,” Stiffin acknowl- edged. “You are not being injected with the (actual) virus,” she stated in a tele- phone interview from Miami. Still, she was cautious. “Even though the vaccines have 95 percent efficacy, we still have a long way to go,” she noted.
Real life
Stiffin says research is key. Her stu- dents are tasked with researching and writing about COVID-19 as well, and it’s about more than a classroom lesson. It’s about real life. “It’s not just that you have to pass my class. It’s to teach them that sci- ence is real,” she explained. Stiffin says of five Black Americans is impacted by COVID-19 and she says there’s an uptick in the virus be- cause the general public should be wearing masks, social distancing and washing their hands. “The reason there’s an uptick is we weren’t doing these things.”