Dr. Delicia Pruitt

Just as COVID-19 was making its way into the U.S. in January of 2020, Dr. Delicia Pruitt began working as the Medical Director of Saginaw County.

 

“When Saginaw County had its first case in March 2020, I immediately gathered the medical community to discuss our approach to handling COVID-19,” said Delicia.

 

With local healthcare professionals, Delicia—who has worked as a doctor in Saginaw for 19 years—organized a task force to provide care for the community and met weekly to decide how to distribute medical supplies and other resources when the demand was high, but supply was low. 

 

When vaccine rollout began, Delicia could sense that many individuals were hesitant and concerned about receiving their COVID-19 vaccines. She, along with her colleague, Health Officer Chris Harrington, live-streamed receiving their first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. The pair aired 65 episodes on Facebook Live with psychiatrists, pediatricians, infectious disease experts, and other physicians as guests to inform the public about important COVID-19 information. Delicia hoped this would increase vaccine confidence, especially among people of color. 

 

“In African American culture, it’s a mistrust that’s been there for years, and there are definitely disparities when it comes to health care access,” said Delicia.

 

Understanding this, Delicia wrote for a grant to give underserved communities access to vaccinations. She gathered resources and organized mass vaccination clinics at four churches located in underserved areas with the help of multiple health systems. In just two days, over 2,500 vaccines were administered at these clinics, thanks to volunteers from the churches and health systems, including Delicia herself.

 

In addition to these important efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic, Delicia has also been appointed by Governor Whitmer to the Protect Michigan Commission (PMC) and the Food Security Council. 

 

Delicia felt drawn to assist the Food Security Council due to growing up food insecure herself. 

 

“It was important for me to have a voice in how we can help identify and help those who are food insecure,” she said. “I felt that food insecurity should be a medical diagnosis so that insurance and other medical professionals, like social workers, could easily identify these patients and make it easier to give them help.”