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Healthcare industry reaching out to vaccine-hesitant communities of color

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Updated  December 9, 2020 7:10pm CST
Coronavirus Vaccine
FOX 9

(FOX 9) - With distribution of a coronavirus vaccine expected this spring, one challenge facing the healthcare industry is that some communities may be hard to reach.

Studies show that communities of color, particularly Black Americans, are hesitant to take the COVID-19 vaccine. Right now, there’s an effort underway to build trust.

Healthcare industry reaching out to vaccine-hesitant communities of color

Studies show that communities of color, particularly Black Americans are hesitant to take a COVID-19 vaccine. Right now, there’s an effort underway to help build trust.

“I got my first injection last Friday and I’m happy to say that I’m doing fine,” said Adriene Thornton, who is taking part in a COVID-19 vaccine trial.

At HealthPartners, Thornton is nearly a week into phase three of AstraZeneca’s vaccine trial.

“I’m actually really excited because I feel like I’m being a part of history and I’m also contributing to my community as well,” Thornton said.

Thornton explained why, however, there still exists skepticism about vaccines in the Black community.

“The most notable study that really put some of that distrust in the Black community is the Tuskegee study,” she said.

The mistrust, she said, is rooted in racism.

“I think that it’s a very real concern and in many ways a very appropriate concern,” said Dr. Zeke McKinney, a co-investigator of HealthParnters’s COVID-19 vaccine study.

McKinney is looking to change that narrative by emphasizing that vaccines tend to be very safe.

“If we don’t get it, it’s going to continue to disproportionately impact our community,” said Thornton. “We are dying at a higher rate of COVID-19. We are having COVID-19 in our community at a higher rate.”

Skepticism aside, Thornton says she is just trying to make a difference.

“I try to talk to as many people as I can,” Thornton said. “Because I think that’s one of the biggest problems we have, is that we don’t have the knowledge.”

The CDC says Black Americans are nearly three times more likely to die from the virus than their White counterparts.

Tuesday, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, urged for confidence in the vaccines during a meeting with Black doctors, faith leaders and academics.