SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. — As he lay in an emergency room bed after being diagnosed with COVID-19 in December, Pastor Rev. Steven Shepard would often close his eyes and pray.

Shepard prayed not just for himself but also for those in the same situation, suffering from the highly contagious respiratory disease.

Shepard explained that he felt like he was on death's door.

"Everyone around me was dying," said Shepard. "You can hear folks next door or across the hall and hear their nurses say, 'We have to call the family.'"

So Shepard prayed when a patient recovered or a new patient came in, and he prayed more when he heard the nurses having to make that dire call to a family member.

"There was a lot of praying for myself and the others that were there, strangers that I didn't know because we were united under one banner of 'we're trying to fight this and beat this COVID so we can come home to our families,'" he said. "If I was going to die, I did not want to die in the hospital with this. If I'm going to die, I'll be surrounded by my loved ones, my family and friends."

After a week in the emergency room at St. Bernardine Medical Center in San Bernardino, Shepard was able to walk out. But the experience of being in the hospital and suffering from COVID-19 was a humbling moment for Shepard, who was vaccine-hesitant like many African Americans, as he explained.

Once he got out, Shepard made it a mission to learn about the vaccine and spread the word to his parishioners at Saint Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church in San Bernardino.

As some COVID-19 vaccine resisters seek religious exemptions from the growing list of places requiring a vaccine enter or the workplace, Shepard and other faith-based leaders are spreading the word about the importance of getting the vaccine.

Shepard is not the only faith leader preaching the vaccine's importance to their followers. For nearly a year, religious and other faith leaders — from Pope Francis, Islamic religious institutions and Jewish leaders to Christian pastors — have made statements about the vaccine's safety and moral permissibility.

"[Church Teaching makes] it clear that, at the level of the recipient, it is morally permissible to accept vaccination when there are no alternatives, and there is a serious risk to health," according to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Some resisters believe the shot is the so-called mark of the beast, which signals the end of the world in the Bible. Shepard dismissed those claims.

"Those of us in the Christian faith, if we believe that God can heal, then we must also believe that He can heal through doctors, through science and the vaccine," he said. "I believe that wholeheartedly."

Shepard understands it's not just religious objections that stand in the way when preaching about the vaccine to the Black and African American community who make up his parishioners. Health officials stated that African Americans rightfully have serious trust issues with the government and health care system.

"Blacks have been mistreated by the medical system for as long as we have been in this country," said Dr. Oliver Brooks, chief medical officer at the Watts Healthcare Corp., during a recent conference call on vaccine hesitancy and fear in the African American community.

Brooks pointed out several examples.

"Going back to the enslaved, the medical schools from the North actually came and invaded and took bodies out of the enslaved graveyards [in the South] and took their bodies back to the medical schools to be used as cadavers for their anatomy classes," said Brooks. "In the turn of the 20th century, Black women had forced sterilization in the South and other areas...and we all know about the public health service experiment in Alabama regarding syphilis."

There are plenty more documented examples, as Brooks explained, adding that when discussing vaccine hesitancy in the Black and African American community, the mistrust in the medical system is valid and should not be dismissed.

Still, Black and African American residents are disproportionately affected by COVID-19. According to the LA Times, Blacks in Los Angeles have the highest rate of hospitalizations among all racial and ethnic groups in the county. They also have the lowest vaccination rate among racial and ethnic groups.

So Brooks said it's essential to align with trusted messengers and repeat the same message about the COVID vaccine's safety. Health experts on the conference call said that the Black church plays a vital role in spreading the word.

"Historically, the Black church has served as the epicenter to bring about positive change," said Shepard.

Like many African Americans, Shepard was also vaccine-hesitant, admitting he had a lot of mistrust of the health care system.

"Just like most of Black America, I couldn't get past the Tuskegee experiment and the forced sterilization of Black women," he said. "We were used as guinea pigs. I didn't want to be a guinea pig and end up a statistic."

But when Shepard got out of the hospital after his bout with COVID in December, he did his research. He consulted with African American doctors and pharmacists about the vaccine's safety. He learned that an African American female scientist at Moderna was one of the key players developing the vaccine.

"I was so into dealing with what happened in the past," said Shepard. "I did not take the time to study the science behind the vaccine."

Shepard openly shares his story with his parishioners at Saint Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church.

"I tell them that I was just like them. I had issues and hesitancy due to past and present medical mistrust, but once I did my research for myself, that made all the difference in the world," he said. "I want to be an example to others," he added. "I got the shot. No one is tracking me. I'm not trying to have kids, but I doubt that I'm sterile, and I'm not going to turn into a zombie."

Since initially recovering from COVID-19, Shepard's church has been used as a drive-through testing site and pop-up vaccine clinic. At one pop-up event, more than 300 members of the community got inoculated.

The church has also teamed up with local health agencies in San Bernardino for public service announcements to spread the word.

"We want to make sure our community has the right information," he said. "What happened in the past we should not forget but also not be worried about. They can come to a place that they trust to make it easier on them. We are all singing the same song. We want to bring hope, health and healing to a community that needs a vaccine because we're the community that suffers the most."