Fueled by a History of Mistreatment, Black Americans Distrust the New COVID-19 Vaccines

When a COVID-19 vaccine becomes widely available to Americans, Brianna Clarke says she won’t be taking it. “I don’t trust the vaccine,” the 22-year-old says. “I think it’s too soon to have a vaccine.” Clarke, who lives in Willingboro, N.J., is among a significant number of Black Americans who are skeptical of the healthcare industry in general and, critically, the COVID-19 vaccines recently developed by pharmaceutical companies Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, more specifically. Over the past couple of weeks, the U.S. has averaged in the neighborhood of 200,000 new COVID-19 cases per day, and about 2,500 related deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Still, many Americans like Clarke are reluctant to get vaccinated. The rollout of the first authorized coronavirus vaccine, from Pfizer-BioNTech, began on Dec. 14, marking a critical moment in the U.S.’s battle against rising COVID-19 cases. Distribution of Moderna’s vaccine, authorized for emergency use on Dec. 19, began the following week. But for these vaccines to truly turn the tide of the pandemic, there will need to be near universal willingness among Americans to get the shot. There’s still uncertainty about exactly what number of Americans need to be vaccinated to reach so-called “herd immunity”—the level at which the virus will no longer be able to spread through the population—but Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of ...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 Source Type: news