BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — In May 2020, Baton Rouge nurse Carla Brown brought home the coronavirus to her husband.

Nurse Brown was fortunate enough to recover from COVID-19, but her husband, David Brown, lost the battle.

Her husband’s death and the millions lives lost due to COVID-19 is her motivation to help underserved communities get vaccinated for the virus.

“It was too late for him. I refuse to let another person die from not getting the vaccine,” Brown says.

Nurse Brown established the ‘COVID Crusaders’ to provide access to the COVID-19 test and vaccine in underserved communities.

“We went out and talked to a few people in that area we realized it’s not that they don’t want the vaccine, it’s the miscommunication. In other words, they don’t have the right information. When they talk to you, ‘oh no I don’t want the covid vaccine because it will give me covid.” That automatically tells you, oh wait there is something wrong in this area,” says Noah Johnson, COVID Crusader.

COVID Crusaders are visiting the 70805 and 70807 neighborhoods.

Nurse Brown caught the attention of East Baton Rouge Parish President Sharon Weston Broome.

Broome invited Brown to join her Vaccine Equity Taskforce. With this platform, Nurse Brown will go door to door to vaccinate those who do not have access to go get the shot themselves.

“A lot of times it’s just that fear,” Missy Hastings, COVID Crusader says. “Once we tell them you know we had COVID and that little shot is nothing compared to actually getting the virus.

Nurse Brown chose to provide vaccines in underserved communities after noticing the lack of access.

Brown says these specific people are not tech savvy enough to schedule their own appointments or have transportation to go to a clinic for a shot.

Nurse Brown joined Mayor Broome to discuss the gap between underserved and access to COVID-19 vaccinations here.