The launch of the first COVID-19 vaccine approved this week raises questions about when the inoculations that will change the game will be ready for ordinary Americans.
But for communities of color, especially black communities, which have a deep distrust of the government, the question is whether they will get the vaccine at all.
Distrust is not surprising.
Since the beginning of the twentieth century, tens of thousands of non-white women have been sterilized by the government.
For four decades, the government led what is known as the Tuskegee Syphilis Study in the deep south exclusively on black men. The researchers never received informed consent from participants, nor did they offer treatment for the disease even after penicillin became the main form of treatment for syphilis. The experiment was not stopped until 1972.
In 1951, doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore removed tissue samples without consent from Henrietta Lacks, a woman of color who was being treated for cervical cancer. Part of the tissue sample has become the first line of immortalized human cells and is still widely used in cancer research today.
All these things have happened in the last 100 years and have not been easily forgotten.
“It simply came to our notice then [to] Black people do not trust the vaccine. No, black people don’t trust white people … we don’t trust white people not to endanger their lives, “LaTosha Brown, co-founder of the Black Voters Matter, said Thursday in a press release about the Senate. leaks in Georgia.
The stalemate is problematic because it is well documented that the pandemic has hit people of color the hardest.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, black people in the United States are 3.7 times more likely to be hospitalized and 2.8 times more likely to die than white people. Native Americans and Latinos are hospitalized about four times more than whites because of COVID-19 and are more than 2.5 times more likely to die.
For this reason, organizations such as NAACP are trying to actively engage and educate black communities about viruses and vaccines.
The nation’s oldest civil rights organization held a town hall meeting last week, which featured a handful of high-level black figures, including Marcella Nunez-Smith
Marcella Nunez-Smith Distrust of the government is a significant obstacle to vaccination efforts against black Americans Booker: COVID-19 aid bill is “far” from pandemic aid for states and communities Civil rights groups work to persuade communities blacks to receive the vaccine., a Yale doctor who was named co-chair of the president-elect Joe Biden
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Yvonne Robinson Horton, 71, of Bolton, Miss, changed her mind.
“I was about 70 percent sure I wouldn’t take it,” Horton, a retired teacher who taught for 30 years in Magnolia, said Friday. “I know about Tuskegee. I know about the women they sterilized. … I read about Henrietta Lacks. “
“I’m from Bolton, Miss, we have a strong distrust of the government, to say the least, like many people of color. … We were taught that, ”she said.
What changed his mind, Horton said, were Corbett’s words, which he praised. Anthony Fauci
Mayor Anthony FauciDC honors Fauci at the age of 80 with “Dr. Anthony S. Fauci Republic Day Club whose masked conga line has gone viral responds: Adults have the right to make their own decisions Poll: Americans are increasingly likely to receive the COVID-19 vaccine MORE, the country’s leading virologist, in recent weeks for his leading role in creating the Moderna vaccine, which was backed on Thursday by a federal group of external experts.
“She was so compassionate that I started listening to what she and other people said,” Horton explained. “I try to take all that information and process it, but I really think now I’m more inclined to take it than to take it.”
NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson, whom Horton knows personally, told The Hill that he had sent him a message about a change of heart. Johnson stressed the importance of black voices presenting information about vaccines to black communities.
“The messenger is as important as the message,” Johnson said. “We will work hard to build a bank of powerful messengers. It may not be the same messenger for all communities in the African American population because we are not a monolith, but… people tend to hear individuals with whom they can more easily identify ”.
Some of the federal government’s health agencies seem to understand this.
In September, NIH created the Alliance Engagement Community (CEAL) Against COVID-19 Disparities to address virus misinformation, while finding trusted community partners and leaders to educate their communities with accurate pandemic information.
Lisa Cooper, co-chair of the CEAL steering committee and director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity, echoed Johnson, saying it is crucial to find the best strategy to communicate effectively with different communities across the country.
“There is a needs assessment component, which understands what fears, concerns [and] the questions are and then the piece of the communication campaign, which develops practically different messages for different audiences and tests them and sees which of them seem to be … the most effective ”, said Cooper.
Part of the committee’s work focused on informing black communities about the difference between the vaccination process and previous experiences. For example, CEAL encouraged black people to participate in clinical trials of vaccines, which Corbett pushed for.
“Build credibility,” he told The Hill Rev. Kendrick E. Curry, another co-chair of the steering committee. “It is said that we were not just in development … we are scientists, we are doctors, we are all the necessary things. This is a very different situation. “
Curry, who leads the congregation at Pennsylvania Avenue Baptist Church in Washington, DC, added that the access has slowly had a positive impact.
“At first … probably 90 percent of the people I spoke to said ‘absolutely no.’ [to getting the vaccine]. ‘Now that number has probably dropped by about 50%. Curry’s estimate is verified by a recent study by the Pew Research Center, in which 42% of black adults surveyed said they would receive the vaccine.
A spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services – which encapsulates the NIH – told The Hill earlier this week that it would soon launch a public service campaign on vaccines that would present “messages tailored to groups that are disproportionately affected and areas of the country with the highest infection rates. “
Both Cooper and Curry mentioned that community messengers, such as faith leaders, could play a key role in increasing the number of purchases. At a more macro level, Cooper said it is also important to highlight people of color, such as Corbett, who has worked on the front lines to combat the pandemic, as well as nationally recognized figures.
“I think sports numbers will be really important; I think artists will be important; I think that anyone who is a public figure who is well regarded by many people has an important role to play, “Cooper said.
The role that entities such as celebrities, athletes and professional sports leagues will play is still unclear, although the NBA, which has focused on racial justice issues this year, suggested involvement of some kind on Friday.
In a statement, NBA spokesman Mike Bass told The Hill: “As we have done recently and historically, the NBA will work in partnership with players and other members of the NBA family to support important health communications and public security, including through coordination with public health officials. “