Vaccine Hesitancy Among Black Americans - Where's It Stem From?

 By: Tori Manuel

NEW YORK —  In America, the controversy surrounding the COVID-19 vaccine calls attention to the nation’s past and ongoing neglect of minority demographics as many citizens distrust the legitimacy of this current public health process.

Race has proven to be one of the largest social determinants of health throughout history, and with that being said, Black and Brown communities are consistently the most susceptible to the backlash of past and present health crises. According to the Mayo Health Clinic, in terms of COVID-19, Black Americans, Hispanic Black Americans, and Non-Black Hispanic Americans are twice as likely to be hospitalized with the virus than Non-Hispanic citizens.

Ethnic minorities are at the center of the pandemic’s wrath as they are more likely to work essential jobs with public interaction, live in congested neighborhoods lacking the luxury of social distancing, and ultimately are without the best healthcare due to a low socioeconomic status. This consistent vulnerability makes these demographics the top candidates in need of vaccination and booster shots. So why is there still so much hesitancy among these groups?

The most prominent issue is that the hesitancy has yet to be alleviated by the sight of medical professionals that look like them and understand their lived experiences. “Black scientists and Black medical professionals, they were not called upon for their opinion,” said Dr. Shamard Charles, assistant professor of Public Health at St. Francis College and the host of “The Revolutions Within Us” podcast, in reference to the ongoing pandemic. “In fact, we’ve been left out of the conversation which is mind-boggling given that we’re the gatekeepers to the community with the highest levels of mistrust in the healthcare system.”

Dr. Charles goes on to acknowledge the 1932 Tuskegee Syphilis Study, one of the most referenced cases within an ongoing argument that modern-day science has yet to right its historical immorality.

In 1932, 600 Black men in Tuskegee, Alabama were recruited in an unethical research experiment in which all participants were told that they were being treated for “bad blood.” The men went on to be organized as subjects in a larger scheme initiated by the United States Public Health Service to monitor the effects of untreated syphilis. The experimentation occurred long after the discovery of penicillin treatment for the illness in 1943. This discrepancy cost hundreds of individuals their lives and faith in the United States government and its medical professionals to express true mortality.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) documented that the study went on for 40 years after its start date, only coming to an end in 1973 following a lawsuit filed on behalf of the participants and their families. The case was settled out of court for $10 million in 1974. The recency of this horrific event is the most jarring consideration for the Black population in America today as many older adults face the most direct impact of the timeline. A formal Presidential apology was issued later in 1997 by President Clinton, however, the long history of medical experimentation on Black Americans and the distrust in medical care it has created has yet to be assuaged entirely. 

Unresolved distrust toward public health initiatives has been further proven by initial hesitancy and vaccination rates among the Black American demographic that fall behind the rest of the nation. The Kaiser Family Foundation has documented an ongoing analysis of COVID-19 vaccinations categorized by race and ethnicity. In April 2021, nearly a year after quarantine protocols began, Black citizens made up 24% of the total population that had received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose. According to the most recent study done in July 2022, that statistic now stands at 59%. This is considerably higher than before yet still less than every other race documented. For comparison, Asian Americans are the highest ranked at 87% and White Americans stand at 67%.

At the commencement of the vaccine roll-out, many Black Americans were far from being first in line out of concerns that stem from the permanent scar that taints the reputation of American public health care today. The origins of the United States Public Health Service lie heavily in the belief that those outside of the scientific community are ignorant of the workings of medical experiments and development and should therefore be treated as such. We witness efforts today that seek to eliminate that narrative and provide the public with the information they need to answer their questions and justify taking preliminary action to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the height of the pandemic in March 2020, an increased amount of public service announcements featured leading professionals such as health commissioner Dr. David Choski describing Coronavirus symptoms and vaccination and booster shot updates. The segments created a public forum, encouraged conversations, and enhanced a sense of engagement between the public and our medical representatives which was essential at the time. 

The next step in a long journey toward public healing is the elevated presence of medical health professionals that can understand and advocate for marginalized demographics, especially Black Americans, in scenarios such as vaccine and booster shot distribution, health research, and health advice. There is no one better fit to include those often left out of conversations involving their own quality of life than people from their own community.  “We cannot and should not endorse systems that we are not a part of,” Dr. Shamard Charles emphasized. “We need Black medical professionals to be part of the entire vaccine distribution process thoroughly vetting all the steps along the way. Only then can we be a part of a community outreach process that genuinely endorses the vaccine.”