The first round of distribution of the Covid-19 vaccine first began in Dec. 2020 and since then the World Health Organization reported that 175.3 million vaccine doses have been administered. Of those who received at least the first dose, recent CDC figures showed that only 5.4% were Black American.
The figures confirm that Black Americans are receiving the vaccine at much lower rates than their counterparts, and it opens the dialogue about why that is.
As outlined in Executive Order Number 20-315, eligible persons for the vaccine currently only include long-term care facility residents and staff; persons 65 years of age and older and health care personnel with direct patient contact. Additionally, persons deemed extremely vulnerable to Covid-19 by hospital providers are also eligible to receive the vaccine.
However, CDC studies show that even once the vaccine becomes more available there are still people who will have no intention of getting the vaccine. That level of non-intent was highest among Black Americans at 46.5% as of December.
Daniel Bucking, 21, is a student at the University of North Florida. He is cautious about getting vaccinated once it becomes more widely distributed.
“That depends on how it affects everyone else, because I don’t necessarily want to be a guinea pig because they still haven’t fully given out the vaccine to everybody…and I’m not saying that the vaccine is necessarily bad or its hurting people, but you don’t know the effects of the vaccine,” Bucking said.
He continued to say that becoming more educated has also swayed his decision towards not getting vaccinated.
“And I understand that vaccines give off side effects same as medicine, but I just don’t know how it’s going to affect people, especially as I’m learning new things about history that they didn’t teach us in school,” Bucking said. “And I’m very skeptical of the government and what they do to people, especially people of color.”
That history of mistrust dates all the way back to the Tuskegee Study which involved Black men being misled about the purpose of the study and receiving inadequate treatment for their disease. There has since been mistrust between the black community and the government and healthcare systems.
Using an analogy, Bucking explained that after repeatedly being mistreated, it is hard for people in the Black community to readily trust that getting the vaccine will be a good thing.
“If you beat a child for any and everything and then you try to give them candy or try to be nice to them or kind to them, they’re not going to accept it well because of previous interactions with them,” Bucking said.
Dr. Francoeur Cadet, an infectious disease specialist at Orange Blossom Family Health, acknowledged that the mistrust is also a result of lack of access to care and disparities in care for people in the black community.
“When you look at the medical field, there is so much mistrust and distrust in terms of when black patients go to the hospital,” Cadet said. “They are less likely to get pain medication, if they have chest pain they are less likely to get a full workup, less likely to go to the cardiac cam, less likely to get angioplasty as compared to their counterparts.”
The pandemic has shown that the black community is disproportionately affected by Covid-19. According to the CDC, African Americans are 1.9x more likely to contract Covid-19, 2.9x more likely to be hospitalized and 1.9x more likely to die from Covid-19.
“It affects us the most, so that should be an incentive to take the vaccine so that we can protect ourselves,” Cadet said. “Some of it has to do with working in essential jobs. We don’t have the luxury of working from home as opposed to the other groups and some of it has to do with quartering diseases because in the black community you have a lot of obesity, hypertension, diabetes, kidney disease, heart problems and sickle cell. Those are quartering diseases that can contribute to worse outcomes.”
As for the benefits of getting the vaccine, Cadet says that while there are many, one benefit is that it helps you mentally prepare for Covid-19 in the event of exposure.
“It’s a peace of mind,” Cadet said. “I will be protected. Not only myself but people around me, my family, my friends… there will be protection for all. We are in this together.”
