The pandemic was anything but ‘the big equalizer’ that some people called it when it started more than a year ago. Here in the US, COVID-19 made and killed an excessive number of black people, Native Americans, and Latinx people. Explosion of vaccines also appears to be unfair. Elders of black and Latinx in Los Angeles, for example, were vaccinated at a lower rate than their white and Asian American counterparts.
Distrust of vaccines was a challenge. According to a December Pew Research Center survey, black Americans were less likely to be vaccinated than other racial and ethnic groups. To fix a system that does not serve black Americans and other coloreds: “There really needs to be a cure,” says Melva Thompson-Robinson, executive director of the Center for Health Disparities Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
The edge talked to Thompson-Robinson about the roots of that mistrust and how to cure it.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
How does mistrust of vaccines in color communities differ from white glamorous personalities or conspiracy theorists who are anti-vaxxers?
It’s not just a simple matter of, “Oh, I do not believe anything works, because that’s what I heard.” It is about the deep-rooted, historical trauma that has been carried down through generations. That mistrust comes from the racism they experience. If you’re talking about African Americans in particular, you’re talking about a group of people who are descendants of slaves.
And so that’s a different kind of thing. It’s not ‘I believe these vaccines are ineffective because I heard that is what someone said.’ It’s ‘I do not trust because of the experience my family had under slavery.’
A big thing now is that people are looking at who is in charge. Who holds the vaccine trials? Who participates in the trials? They say, ‘Well, I do not see people who look like me.’ Or “I do see people who look like me. And it’s all great. We need to see people who look like us and who are involved.
What are some of the historical traumas that led to mistrust in the vaccines in some coloreds?
If you start talking about slaves in particular, one of the men recognized as the founder of gynecology actually operated on black women because they were considered property. He did gynecological surgery without anesthesia because part of the thought was “Well, they’re not experiencing any pain.”
That’s not true. All people experience pain.
You can skip the Tuskegee syphilis study. You can even look at the story of Henrietta Lacks, who had cervical cancer. And they harvested her cells in Johns Hopkins and still she uses her cells for research.
So people say, ‘Well, you have to trust the health care system.’ But healthcare systems, healthcare institutions and healthcare providers need to act in a reliable manner. You can not just expect people to say after centuries of mistrust, “Oh yes, I do not trust you now.”
How do we see inequalities playing out today when it comes to vaccinating in the US?
The challenge was with some vaccines that you have very specialized storage functions, which are then limited where some of them can be distributed. Colored communities do not always have access to the storage facilities.
For people who work in grocery stores or other stores and grocery stores, it is not that simple for them to take time off to go to an appointment. If they do not have sick leave or if they have a limited amount of leave, they cannot stand in line for hours on end.
Another challenge is the messages people send out. You already know that you have populations that are concerned about vaccination. The messages for the population must therefore be different.
There is no one-size-fits-all prescription for how to reach out to different color communities. But what should solutions or outreach strategies look like there?
Here in Clark County, where Las Vegas is located, the governor just came out with an equity initiative last week. Because if you look at the data, where the cases are against people getting the vaccine, these are two different places in the same city. This is not the same group of people. We see this unfair distribution of resources. We are in this perfect storm, and in order to survive it, I think power must be relinquished.
There really needs to be healing and some need to step back. Not chasing, but stepping back and saying, ‘You know what, we hear what you’re saying. We understand where we have done wrong, and we want to do better. ”
Here’s what’s happening this week.
Research
The rapidly spreading coronavirus variant appears in American sewage works
Some researchers are stopping coronavirus variants through U.S. sewer systems. For more information on sewers and COVID-19, visit it Edge Science’s video from last year. (Antonio Regalado / MIT Tech Review)
Doctors and lawmakers call on FDA to address racial differences in pulse oximeters
Pulse oximeters can measure the amount of oxygen in people’s blood through their skin, but it is not as accurate in people of color. Some experts call on the FDA to review the effectiveness of these devices. (Erin Brodwin and Nicholas St. Fleur / STAT)
Childhood colds do not prevent coronavirus infection
Some people thought that children would be less vulnerable to the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 because they were exposed to other coronaviruses that cause colds. This is not the case. A study found that the other coronaviruses did not produce antibodies that were effective against the new coronavirus. (Apoorva Mandavilli / The New York Times)
Development
How Merck, a vaccine titan, lost the Covid Race
A look at why a “pharmaceutical giant” is falling out of the vaccine race and where they can go from here. (Katie Thomas / The New York Times)
AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine was confusing from the start
Earlier this week, South Africa decided to suspend the deployment of the AstraZeneca vaccine after failing poorly in a small dissertation against a widespread variant. Later this week, the WHO recommended that the vaccine still be used. (Nicole Wetsman / The edge)
Covid-19 vaccination rates follow money in states with the largest wealth gaps, analysis shows
States with large wealth gaps, such as Connecticut, see large differences in vaccination rates. In Connecticut, there is a 65 percent difference in vaccination rates between the richest and poorest communities. (Olivia Goldhill / STAT)
Perspectives:
“I do my shift, wash my face, put on my clothes and then go on the app.”
– The doctor in the emergency, Daniel Fagbuyi, tells Bloomberg about his voluntary second shift: combating misinformation against vaccine in the social media app Clubhouse.
More than numbers
For the more than 108 030 043 people worldwide who tested positive, your recovery path can be smooth.
To the families and friends of the 2,377,268 people who died worldwide – 479,458 of those in the US – your loved ones will not be forgotten.
Stay safe everyone.