Vaccine recipients encourage Black community to vaccinate
22nd March 2021 · 0 Comments
By Brier Evans
Contributing Writer
Across the nation, COVID-19 has taken the lives of African Americans at a disproportionate rate, compared to white Americans. Data from the Centers for Disease Control found the death rate in Black communities to be 1.9 times that of the rate of death in white communities, and the hospitalization rate to be 2.9 times higher.
The Biden administration announced on March 13 that all Americans will be eligible for Food Drug Administration-approved COVID-19 vaccinations by May 1. In seven weeks, vaccination sites across the state are expected to receive ramped up allocations of vaccines through federal and state coordination efforts.
“There is no need to wait,” said Dr. Keith C. Ferdinand, a professor of Medicine at Tulane University’s School of Medicine, who is the Gerald S. Berenson Endowed Chair in Preventive Cardiology. He received his first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech during its early release in December because he wanted to be able to tell the community that the vaccine is safe and effective, he said.
“Over 70 million people have received at least one shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna or, now, the [Johnson and Johnson] vaccines. If there were terrible, unforeseen complications we would see hundreds, if not thousands, of people getting very ill after those shots,” said Ferdinand, who has been working as a member of Governor John Bel Edward’s COVID-19 Task Force and through the Louisiana Community Engagement Alliance against COVID-19 Disparities (LA-CEAL) effort to improve treatment and health access for African-American communities in the state.
Ferdinand said he wants the Black community to know that the research is sound.
“There was a strong effort to include minorities in the phase 3 vaccine trials and the results appear equally beneficial for all racial/ethnic groups,” he said. “The Black community will benefit greatly from reversing these disparities in COVID-19 death and disability,” he added.
The CDC has given its stamp of approval on the three vaccines now available to the American public: Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson. There are many leaders in the Black community, in particular scientists and doctors, who are working to provide access to the vaccines and to urge African Americans to do so right away.
“I received my first dose, Moderna, on January 5, 2021, and received my second dose on February 2, 2021. I took it because I believe in vaccines and I wanted to lead by example and practice what I preach,” said Dr. Gary Wiltz, an internal medicine specialist and the chief executive of Teche Action Clinics.
Wiltz’s team in Franklin, Louisiana, has been administering vaccines to eligible patients, mostly African American, and is also working to collect blood plasma to be used in the treatment of sick COVID-19 patients.
“There was an initial justified hesitancy based on fear and misinformation but as our patients saw trusted leaders take the vaccine, that fear and hesitancy dissipated,” Wiltz said. “Our clinic continues to follow the recommendations of the CDC and governor as to spread to more people [and] continue to promote and advertise,” said Wiltz of his clinics’ vaccination plan in the next few weeks.
The fear and hesitancy of the COVID-19 vaccines within the Black community stem from centuries of unjust experiences of African Americans with medical research, and the health care system. The Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male, which was an unethical experiment focused on Black males lasting from 1932 to 1972, remained one of the more often cited examples of this. However, residents say they are willing to vaccinate after doing their own research.
“Initially, I was opposed to getting the shot due to African American’s history with medicine. I wanted to wait and see. There was and is a ton of misinformation out there,” said Bantu Gross, the program director of Fathers Matter, a program of Compassion Outreach of America. “It wasn’t until I started attending webinars, talking to trusted friends, and talking with vaccinated Black folk that I began to trust the vaccine was good enough to put in my body,” Gross said.
Gross said he received his first shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on March 6, after one of his daughters was diagnosed with COVID-19. She was asymptomatic.
“Last time I checked the stats, African Americans were vaccinated at a six-percent rate. However, we are the ones the most impacted by the pandemic when it comes to deaths and those infected,” Gross added.
Currently, the COVID-19 Louisiana Distribution Plan, according to the American Association of Retired Persons, includes vaccination sites at health clinics, medical providers, retail pharmacies such as CVS and Walgreens, and state vaccine hubs such as the Louisiana State Fairgrounds and the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge. The current eligible residents for vaccines include adults ages 65 and up, people ages 16 and up with disabilities that require home care; teachers and education staff, health care and outpatient health care workers, pregnant women, and people diagnosed with underlying conditions such as diabetes, asthma, sickle cell disease and down syndrome, among other common ailments.
“I think the vaccine is safe, that’s why I got Johnson and Johnson,” said Victoria Mason, a retail manager from Macon, Miss., whose daughter attends college in New Orleans. “My age puts me at risk of complications from COVID, and I also have young adult children who are more active in the community with school and work,” Macron said.
As an essential worker, Macron said she felt it was important for her to get vaccinated.
“My work also exposes me to a lot of different people, so I thought it was necessary for me to take it. I didn’t experience any side effects apart from being tired after the first couple of hours,” Macron said.
Despite the initial and overall apprehension, more African Americans said they are starting to consider getting the vaccine, including young people.
“I have asthma, so I took the vaccine at the request of my mother,” said Kennedy Jeffery, a data science major at Xavier University of Louisiana.
“I took the Johnson and Johnson vaccine that was being distributed on Xavier’s campus on March 12. After I took the vaccine, I experienced flu-like symptoms but was fine after a day or two. It honestly wasn’t that bad. I don’t regret taking the vaccine,” Jeffery said.
With the state opening up eligibility to achieve herd immunity by the summer, medical providers hope more African Americans will get in line to get vaccinated.
“It is important for [African Americans] because we are disproportionately affected in terms of risk of infection rate and morbidity and mortality. We should take it as soon as possible as this is one of the few times where Black folks have been made a priority to be first in line by the president and governor,” Wiltz said.
This article originally published in the March 22, 2021 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
