Black Americans have been catching the coronavirus, getting severely ill and dying from it, at a rate higher than other racial and ethnic groups in the U.S. Black Americans are also less likely to want to get the COVID-19 vaccine, according to polls. A survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation last month found that around 35% of Black adults are not planning to get COVID-19 vaccines.
So how can medical and public health leaders work to overcome this hesitancy? To start with, acknowledge the historical reasons for black mistrust of medicine, say researchers and Black physicians working to reach their own communities.
“In the Black community, there is skepticism that relates to historical experiences, and mistrust based on the discrimination that Black Americans face in the health care system and in the rest of society. It’s really well-founded,” says Dr. Lisa Cooper, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity, and a former MacArthur “genius” fellow for her work in health disparities.
To address this hesitance, experts say medical authorities should listen to people’s concerns and connect communities with accurate and accessible information. The key, says Cooper, “is for them to feel a sense of empowerment and control over their own health and their own decisions.”
Among those working to reach Black communities with vaccine information are a growing contingent of Black doctors finding creative ways to encourage vaccine acceptance.
Dr. Robert Drummond, an urgent care physician in Los Angeles,posts videos on Youtube and Instagram explaining COVID-19 science to the public. He says acknowledging racism in the health care system is one key step to reaching Black communities, because the mistrust has deep roots.
Validating the real, history- and experience-based reasons why people may be hesitant establishes common ground. “You can’t treat if you can’t empathize,” says Drummond.
