Sometimes a cliché is just right. The Sandtown area of Western Baltimore, for example, looks like a war zone.
Most residents are African-Americans, and what this means, not only here but also nationally, is that they are hospitalized and die of COVID-19 at two to three times the rate of white Americans. Prison is a perfect breeding ground for the disease, but when ex-prisoners come home to Sandtown, they get a softer euphemism: ‘Returning citizens’.
“We still have high unemployment within the community. We have returning citizens,” said Reverend Derrick DeWitt.
DeWitt is a field marshal in the local war on poverty, disease and hunger.
‘My church is located in a food desert. Seventy-four square blocks from Sandtown, ‘DeWitt told Ted Koppel of’ CBS Sunday Morning. ‘ “We have about 109 businesses selling alcohol. But we do not have one supermarket.”
Five thousand families a month receive food in the First Mount Calvary Baptist Church. Convincing the same people to be vaccinated against COVID is more complicated. Blame some of it in the trash that spreads on the internet.
“There’s this conspiracy that Bill Gates helped them design a microchip that will be implanted in you as a result of the vaccination,” DeWitt said.
Even more dangerous is the distortion of a sincere medical outrage. One headline claims that the government health workers, clearly from many years ago, inject southern rural blacks with syphilis. Then, at the bottom of the page, the question: “Do you want another corona vaccine?”
The government did not inject anyone with syphilis, but what happened was worse in some respects.
Dr. Reed Tuckson is co-founder of the Black Coalition Against COVID-19 and provides facts about the vaccine.
“The Tuskegee study of untreated syphilis in African Americans began in the 1930s,” Tuckson told Koppel. “It was a study done without the informed consent of the men, and it was done in a way to look at what would happen to those who already had syphilis and it was not treated … to see what the consequences would be. “
Nearly 50 years after it ended, the Tuskegee study remains a problem.
“Unfortunately, in the 1940s, we had a drug called penicillin, which we knew was effective in treating this disease,” Tuckson said. “And the men were not denied access to it. The study continued for 40 years without anyone sounding the alarm.”
What happened to those men?
“Unfortunately, there are two things: those men died of the disease and became extremely ill for long, long periods of time.” Tuckson said. “And number two, because they did not tell about the disease they had, they spread that disease to the women in their lives, to their wives and loved ones, who also got syphilis.”
“No one has ever been punished or held accountable … for this outrage,” Tuckson said. “And it’s a stain on America’s conscience.”
It also had a lasting impact on the confidence of the Black community in the medical institution.
“And what’s so outrageous today is that the Tuskegee syphilis study experience 40 years later is still the pace-limiting step to combat this pandemic,” Tuckson said.
“And then you link it all to the conspiracy theories out there,” DeWitt said. “When I talk to us … employees, it was all.” I do not know what is in the vaccine. I do not trust it. They developed it too quickly. You know, they are trying to make us sterile.
In addition to his ministry, the pastor also has a nursing home.
“The nursing home was started in 1920 by a group of pastors in the city as the Maryland Baptist Aged Home for Colored People,” DeWitt said.
Nationwide, more than 160,000 COVID deaths have occurred in nursing homes. All this makes the health record of this nursing home so much more remarkable.
“We had no thanks for the COVID infections among our staff or residents,” DeWitt said. “We therefore regard it as a miracle and a blessing.”
It is also the sign of a tough, disciplined driver.
“We were extreme in our measures because we did not allow anyone,” DeWitt said. “Our residents did not go out unless it was an extreme emergency.”
But when the time came to vaccinate the staff: “I was even amazed at my nursing home with 42 employees. Our first vaccination clinic had only 11 employees to take the vaccine,” DeWitt said.
The pastor set the example. He was the first to be vaccinated. He talked to his staff one by one. He prayed with them.
“So it helped,” DeWitt said. “And then we had to get to the point that for the sake of our residents and the kind of facility, I’m not sure I can guarantee your job if you do not take the vaccine.”
All but two of his employees received the message – and the vaccine.
“We do not need to fire anyone,” DeWitt told Koppel. “There are some inconsistencies as to whether we can order the vaccine.”
“But what you’re telling me is that we’ve been in this country for over a year now,” Koppel said. “And at that time you did not have a single case.”
“We have not had a single case yet,” DeWitt said.
AG Rhodes has three non-profit nursing homes in the greater Atlanta area. In the past year, 26 of their residents and 1 staff member have died at COVID. Jovonne Harvey is marketing director at the flagship facility.
“About 90% of the facility is probably African-American,” Harvey told Koppel.
“And when the patients first heard of the vaccine, what was the reaction?” Ask Couple.
“They welcomed it because they wanted to return to their normal daily functions,” Harvey said.
“And what about the staff, same thing?” Ask Couple.
Harvey said they were “not as excited about receiving the vaccine as the residents.”
“You are very, very diplomatic,” Koppel said. “They weren’t just excited. They were resistant, right?”
“Yes, it was them. They were very resistant,” Harvey said. “I would say, maybe 30% of the staff were willing to take the vaccine.”
The company held a city meeting to address their employees’ concerns. Harvey, who was initially reluctant himself, received the vaccine and was one of the first to help spread the message:
“So you were kind of the role model in some ways,” Koppel said.
“I think it helped a lot,” Harvey said.
Well, not so much. The company even offered incentives: paid off time, bonuses of up to $ 500. As of now, only 48% of staff have been vaccinated.
“It’s not great. But it’s definitely a start,” Harvey said.
“Jovonne, we’re been in the clutches of this pandemic for over a year,” Koppel said. ‘How much time do people need? We have 450 thousand people dead. ‘
“I know,” Harvey said.
“What are they holding back now?” Ask Couple.
“I just think it’s just total fear,” Harvey said. “They are not sure which way to go.”
“I’ve both heard young people talking to the older people in their family and saying, ‘You really need to get the vaccine,’ ‘Koppel told Dr. Reed Tuckson.” And on the other hand, I hear that among the people in the black community is most suspicious of the vaccine, members of the young community. What is it?”
“The people who offer the best resistance are our young people. They are young people who grew up with the greatest degree of mistrust because of all the problems they have faced in their lives, especially around the criminal and policing issues.” Tuckson said: “So these are the ones that are currently the hardest to reach.”
Jim Mangia is president and CEO of St John’s Well Child and Family Center. Their community clinics in South Los Angeles and Compton see 100,000 patients annually, including 35,000 undocumented immigrants.
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“LA is really a story of two cities. You have the extremely affluent West Side, and then you have the extremely poor South Side and East Side,” Mangia told Koppel.
St. John’s was at the forefront of the fight against COVID. Now they are trying to combat misinformation about the vaccine.
Send Spanish-speaking outreach workers to the Latino neighborhoods. They must reassure the undocumented: that they will not be extradited to immigration, and, more importantly, that the analysis of the vaccine will not kill them.
St. John’s vaccinates between 1,500 and 2,000 people a day; but Jim Mangia maintains that it is not nearly enough.
“What would you say are the biggest obstacles in the way of vaccinating the most underprivileged communities in California?” Ask Couple.
“The lack of vaccine is a big problem,” Mangia said. “The cumbersome website and appointment system set up by the state is extremely difficult to navigate. And many of our patients who work all day, by the time they get home, have all the appointments taken by people from the West. Side – White, young hipsters who can look for vaccine all day. ‘
Preliminary government data show a clear difference between races receiving the vaccines: more than 60% of vaccinations went to whites, less than 9% to Hispanics and less than 6% to blacks.
“I do not think we are going to be successful unless we find a way to bring the vaccine among the people,” DeWitt said. “We see 5,000 people a month coming through our church to get food … If we can vaccinate during a food drive, if we call on the faith-based community as partners in the vaccination process, I think a long way to go to make sure that people get the vaccine. ‘
“You have to vaccinate the most vulnerable first, and that’s how you’re really going to get herd immunity,” Mangia said. “You need to vaccinate the most hesitant, the most vulnerable, and then you can really start doing mass vaccination and bring us to a place where we can return to a normal life.”