Prayer and science led me to the vaccine

Opinion polls show that African Americans have the biggest hesitation of any group about the Covid vaccine. These reservations are rooted in centuries of abuse, as well as illegal and unethical experimentation by the nation’s medical institution. In the 19th century, James Marion Sims, the man considered the father of modern gynecology, performed dozens of experiments on enslaved women without anesthesia. The famous “Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in Black Men” continued in the 1970s.

The health outcomes are also not encouraging. African Americans have twice the infant mortality rate of whites. African-American women are three times more likely to have their white counterparts die from pregnancy-related causes. The breast cancer mortality rate is 42% higher in black women than in white women. My father died when I was just 16, largely due to misdiagnosed and abused hypertension. During the pandemic, there were disturbing news reports about different treatment in American medical institutions.

Unfounded rumors of an attempt to use the vaccine to eliminate the black community have gained ground among my African-American colleagues. I understand the general distrust, but the painful truth is that blacks need a vaccine more than anyone. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says we are almost three times more likely to die from Covid.

As a minister, I personally witnessed these deaths. I buried many friends and church members. At the height of the pandemic, we regularly received reports of two or three deaths each day. I tried to comfort and advise their survivors, as most of them could not be in the same room with their loved ones as they breathed their last. Over the weekend, I lost an old friend and colleague because of the virus. But I believe that the God who brought us through slavery, Jim Crow, the Spanish flu and lynchings can lead us through this crisis as well.

As a father, grandfather, pastor, and community leader, I understood the importance of understanding the vaccine. That meant receiving the facts from the most qualified scientists and doctors. A panel discussion we hosted in early January with several of the nation’s leading infectious disease experts – including Anthony Fauci, Kizzmekia Corbett and medical professor Yale Onyema Ogbuagu – provided a detailed description of the process. vaccine development. Particularly useful were the details provided by Dr. Corbett, a young black woman and a key scientist behind the development of Moderna’s new mRNA vaccine.

I have received invaluable advice from my doctor for a long time, a black woman and a member of my church who received the vaccine herself. Because I believe in the multitude of counselors, I have also spoken to several leading infectious disease specialists in the Dallas area, a metropolis that hosts many world-renowned health care units.

Eventually, it made sense. I am a 63-year-old black man, a little overweight and with an underlying health condition. The vaccine has been shown to reduce the chances of people like me getting the virus. To date, the side effects of the vaccine have been minimal or non-existent. It is true that no one knows anything about the potential long-term side effects. But here’s what we know: The virus has killed more than 500,000 people in this country alone, but the vaccine has not killed a single person. Moreover, there is a lot of information about the debilitating persistent symptoms among those who survive the virus.

I don’t consider myself a lawyer for the vaccine. This is a personal decision. But you shouldn’t make an important personal decision without information – or poor information. In an age where the line between fact and fiction is gradually eroding, it has never been more important to prevent people from being influenced by misinformation or the countless fakes that spread on the internet.

Here’s my unsolicited advice: Do your own research. Pray. Consult several credible sources, from your personal physician to federal agencies such as the CDC. A serious search for the truth could save your life – and your loved ones.

Bishop Jakes is the senior pastor of the House of Potter, a 30,000-member church based in Dallas.