By Aaron Allen, The Seattle Medium
The Washington State Department of Health has undertaken immense efforts to inform and educate the African American community to trust in the vaccination process in fighting COVID-19.
With one of the lowest vaccination rates in the state, DOH has compiled a group of African American leaders and experts and are launching the “Here For Us” campaign to spread credible information and educate the Black community in the hopes of subduing some of the fears, misinformation and hesitancy the Black community has concerning getting vaccinated.
“As you know there are lagging vaccination rates within our communities, our population,” says DeeSha Connor, COVID 19 health educator for the Washington State Department of Health. “So, in partnership with the Department of Health, we have created a campaign, the Here For Us campaign that features real people from Washington state sharing their stories, sharing their journeys on how they started from being hesitant about the COVID-19 vaccines to how they came to the decision on getting vaccinated.”
With approximately 34% of African Americans/Blacks in Washington state who are 18 years and above are not vaccinated, the campaign is designed to reach individuals in this demographic set and provide them with proper information about the vaccines.
“This (campaign) is for African Americans, specifically ages 18-34, for the Here For Us campaign,” says Connor. “We will have another campaign that will be more general, but it will still be for the African American population and that will be launch in March.”
According to many experts when it comes to medical issues and African Americans trust is a major issue.
From a historical perspective, many African Americans believe that the descendants of slaves have been used as “petri dishes” in the eyes of science, and with examples such as the Tuskegee experiment and other atrocities acted upon African Americans in the name of science, health officials are finding it a challenge to get the African American community on board regarding vaccinations.
Prior to the campaign, focus groups led by Black doctors and leaders in the Black community surveyed the community to understand what was needed in order for Black people to trust the vaccination and the vaccination process. Out of that process came many answers that were surprising but offered some common threads to pursue.
“The first common thread, and a surprising one, was with young African American males believing the vaccine would affect their sexual drive,” says Pastor Lawrence Willis of Truevine of Holiness MBC. “Just as with young African American women, they feared the vaccine would affect the ability to give birth. From the older group, the reasons behind hesitancy were the vaccine came out to soon and who it came from — no one Black was giving out information regarding COVID or the vaccine, and lastly trusting the government or leaders was a major factor.”
Al Kendrick says that he is one of the many people who struggled with the decision of whether or not to get vaccinated. Even after witnessing people around him getting sick and dying, Kendrick remained unsure.
“I just didn’t trust it,” says Kendrick. “It is extremely critical that African Americans be critical thinkers. Our communities have been left by the waste side when it comes to the leaders of this country. We have always had to navigate this government or society.”
“So, when someone introduces something new, I have to be weary of that,” added Kendrick. “It’s not like society has been for me or my health, it’s been like this for most African Americans. I just wasn’t ready for someone to stick a needle in my arm just because the President, or the Governor said it was OK.”
Ultimately, Kendrick after careful consideration, a lot of interviews with Black doctors and reading countless medical material, as well as watching his parents get their vaccinations, made the decision to get vaccinated.
According to health officials, the Here For Us campaign seeks to answer a number of concerns that people have about whether or not to get vaccinated. Questions like were Blacks included in the clinical trials, why should we trust the vaccines, is it safe, and why is the government pushing so hard for us to be vaccinated?
In response to these questions, the Here For Us campaign provided the following explanations:
• Blacks and African Americans are considered in vaccine trials. Though at times there may be low participation from the Black population, the research and test data indicate positive outcomes with the vaccine for the whole population, including Blacks and African Americans.
• The COVID-19 vaccine has been tested and approved as the safest protection against the COVID-19 virus just as previous childhood vaccines were tested and approved as safety against some common childhood diseases. Our children take those vaccines to enter and attend school. The COVID-19 vaccine is a safe vaccine.
• Science grows and evolves with new discoveries. As more information is uncovered, the information changes because the information and data we knew before has grown into something new. The newest and latest information is what helps keep us the safest.
The Here For Us campaign is just that, it is here to aid the African American community in Washington state in this important and dire decision.
“Go to our website and reconsider,” says Connor. “We understand why there are hesitancy, we acknowledge that, and we want to give pause to that of course. But we also want to make sure that you [the Black community] have the accurate information you need to make an informed decision. We want your decision to be based on truthful facts not the misinformation we have seen out there. We want to give the energy to the truth.”
