The rollout of the first approved COVID-19 vaccine this week begs the question of when the groundbreaking vaccinations will be ready for ordinary Americans.
But for communities of color, especially black communities, who harbor a deep-seated mistrust of the government, the question is whether they will take the vaccine at all.
The mistrust is not surprising.
From the early to mid-20th century, tens of thousands of non-white women were sterilized by the government.
For four decades, the government conducted the so-called Tuskegee Syphilis Study in the Deep South exclusively on black men. Researchers never received informed consent from the participants nor offered them any 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 permission from Henrietta Lacks, a black woman being treated for cervical cancer. Part of the tissue sample became the first immortal human cell line and is still widely used in cancer research.
All of these things have happened in the past 100 years and have not been easily forgotten.
‘The conversation is over [to] Black people don’t trust the vaccine. No, black people don’t trust whites … we don’t trust whites wouldn’t endanger our lives, ”said LaTosha Brown, co-founder of Black Voters Matter, during a press call on the Senate on Thursday. runoff races in Georgia.
The deadlock is problematic as it is well documented that the pandemic hit people of color hardest.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, black people in the US are 3.7 times more likely to be hospitalized and 2.8 times more likely to die than whites. Native Americans and Latinos are hospitalized about four times more often than Caucasians because of COVID-19 and are more than 2.5 times more likely to die.
That’s why organizations like the NAACP are trying to actively involve and educate black communities about the virus and vaccines.
The country’s oldest civil rights organization held a town hall meeting last week with a handful of high-level black figures, including Marcella Nunez-Smith
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It changed the mind of 71-year-old Yvonne Robinson Horton from Bolton, Miss.
“I was about 70 percent sure I wouldn’t take it,” Horton, a retired teacher who taught for 30 years at Magnolia State, told The Hill on Friday. ‘I know about Tuskegee. I know about those women who sterilized them. … I have read about Henrietta Lacks. “
‘I’m from Bolton, Miss. We have a strong distrust of the government, to say the least, as many black people do. … We learned that, ”she said.
What changed her mind, Horton said, were Corbett’s words, which were praised Anthony Fauci
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“She was so compassionate that I started listening to what she and other people were saying,” Horton explained. “I’m trying to take in and process all that information, but I really think I’m more likely to take it now than not.”
NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson, who knows Horton personally, told The Hill she texted him about her change of heart. Johnson stressed the importance of black voices presenting information about the vaccines to black communities.
“The messenger is just as important as the message,” Johnson said. “We are going to work very hard to build a bank with strong messengers. … It may not be the same messenger for all communities within the African American population because we are not a monolith, but … people tend to hear individuals with whom they can more easily identify. “
Some federal government health agencies seem to understand this.
In September, NIH established the Community Engagement Alliance (CEAL) Against COVID-19 Disparities to address misinformation about the virus while finding trusted community partners and leaders to educate their communities about accurate information about the pandemic.
Lisa Cooper, CEAL Steering Committee Co-Chair and Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity, reiterated Johnson, saying it was critical to find the best strategy for communicating effectively with different communities across the country.
“There is a component to needs assessment, understanding people’s fears and concerns [and] questions are and then the communication campaign piece, which basically develops different messages for different audiences and tests them to see which … seem to be the most effective, ”said Cooper.
Part of the committee’s work has focused on educating black communities about how the vaccine process is different from the tantalizing experiences of the past. For example, CEAL encouraged black people to participate in the clinical trials of the vaccines, something Corbett also pushed for.
“It builds credibility,” Reverend Kendrick E. Curry, another steering committee co-chair, told The Hill. “It says we haven’t just been in development… we’re the scientists, we’re the doctors, we’re all the things that are needed. This is a completely different situation. “
Curry, who leads the congregation at Pennsylvania Avenue Baptist Church in Washington, DC, added that the outreach has gradually had a positive impact.
“In the beginning… probably 90 percent of the people I spoke to said, ‘Absolutely not [to getting the vaccine]. Now that number is probably down about 50 percent. Curry’s estimate is in line with a recent Pew Research Center study in which 42 percent of black adults surveyed said they would receive the vaccine.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services – summarizing NIH – told The Hill earlier this week that it would soon launch a public service campaign related to the vaccines with “ tailored messages to groups disproportionately affected and areas. the country with the highest infection rates. “
Cooper and Curry both mentioned that community messengers, such as faith leaders, could play a key role in getting more buy-in. On a more macro level, Cooper said it was also important to highlight black people like Corbett, who worked on the front lines, to fight the pandemic, as well as numbers that are nationally recognized.
“I think sports figures will become very important; I think artists are going to be important; I think anyone who is a public figure who is well appreciated by many people has an important role to play, ”said Cooper.
The role that entities such as celebrities, athletes and professional sports leagues will play is still unclear, although the NBA, which has been front and center on racial justice issues this year, hinted at some involvement on Friday.
In a statement, NBA spokesperson Mike Bass told The Hill, “As we have seen recently and historically, the NBA will work with players and others in the NBA family to support important public health and safety communications, including through coordination with public health. civil servants. “