There is a long and sordid history of mistreatment of African Americans by medicine in the United States. Consequently, many African Americans are duly skeptical about medicine and medical practice.
Of course, there is the infamous Tuskegee syllabus experiment—and many other documented cases of abuse. I will not try to detail these atrocities here as several books and studies have detailed some of these travesties, and many are well-known.
And then this year came the COVID-19 pandemic, affecting racial and ethnic minority communities disproportionately.
Non-Hispanic Black, Hispanic/Latino and American Indian/American Native persons have experienced higher rates of disease, hospitalization and death from COVID-19 compared with non-Hispanic whites.
This is almost certainly related to inequities in social determinants of health that put racial and ethnic minority groups at increased risk for COVID-19, including overrepresentation among essential workers that have higher risk of exposure to COVID-19, low incomes, reduced access to healthcare, or higher rates of comorbid conditions.
And we have another problem. Due largely to the historically bad treatment of African Americans by American medicine blacks are reluctant to take the life- saving COVID-19 vaccines, which are now becoming available.
Intentions to get vaccinated vary by race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic statis, with acceptance being the lowest among black respondents. In other words, the group that needs the vaccine the most has a built-in reluctance to take it.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health (NIAID, NIH), recently said we’d need 75 percent to 80 percent of the country to take the vaccine in order to resume normal life by the end of next year.
COVID-19 vaccination protects one from getting COVID-19. Two doses are needed.
Depending on the specific vaccine you get, a second shot 3-4 weeks after your first shot is needed to get the most protection the vaccine has to offer against this serious disease.
Our need to take this vaccine is so great that I will echo Dr. Fauci’s comments a few days ago when he noted that the second vaccine to be approved was developed in NIH under the leadership of an African American female scientist, Dr. Kizzmeia Shanta Corbett.
As has often happened in American history African Americans have come to the rescue and provided much needed innovation at critical times for the American society.
Dr. Corbett follows in a long line of these innovators. She is a lead scientist at the Vaccine Research Center (VRC) at the (NIAID NIH). NIAID is the agency headed for many years by Dr. Fauci. Dr. Corbett’s team developed the vaccine in partnership with the biotechnology company, Moderna.
A few years ago, we learned of the exploits of the “Hidden Figures,” the black women mathematicians at NASA.
The importance of these mathematicians may be illustrated by a John Glenn story. In 1962 astronaut Glenn make a final check of his planned orbital trajectory, one generated by a computer. He was unsettled by the use of this machine. So he asked that Dorothy Johnson double-check the machine’s figures by hand, stating, “if she says the numbers are good, I’m ready to go.”
With this work by black women, we went to the moon and beyond.
Let us celebrate Dr. Corbet’s work and use her innovation and save our lives.
