Poll: 49% would get a new COVID-19 vaccine, fewer Black, Hispanic Americans plan to get vaccine
ATLANTA - The race is on to create a vaccine that could stop the novel coronavirus.
This week, a leading contender, developed by the biotech company Moderna, moves into large-scale testing in 30,000 healthy adults.
Yet, will Americans be willing to get vaccinated when the time comes?
Last year, less than half of Americans got a flu shot.
Ben Holst of Atlanta says he will gladly roll up his sleeve for the novel coronavirus vaccine.
"It doesn't give me much pause that it's been on the fast track," Holst says. "I have a lot of faith in science and the people that are working on it."
Laytonia Walton, on the other hand, has no plans to get vaccinated.
"I just don't think there has been enough testing and research done on it," Walton says. "I'm not sure of the side effects, and I'm not sure they're even sure on the side effects, and I don't want to take anything if I don't know how it's going to affect my body.”
Walton is not alone in her concerns.
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An Associated Press/NORC poll in mid-May found Americans are divided down the middle when it comes to whether to get the vaccine.
Dr. Reuben Warren, Director of the National Center for Bioethics in Research and Health Care at Tuskegee University, says he understands the reluctance that some people feel.
"Some don't believe that the vaccine will work," Warren says. "Others don't believe the vaccines will reach the people who need to get them. Others think that it takes time to develop a safe vaccine. It takes years, not months or weeks.”
In the AP/NORC poll, 49% of those polled said they planned to get vaccinated.
But, broken down along racial lines, some differences emerged.
56% of Whites said they planned to get vaccinated, but only 25% of Blacks and 37% of Hispanics were willing to get the vaccine.
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So, why the difference?
Warren points to a long history of distrust between African Americans and the public health community, which, he says, stretches back to the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Study, which was conducted from 1932 to1972.
"625 Black men were "treated" for what they call ‘bad blood,’” Warren says. "But, in fact, many of them had syphilis, and many of them were followed for 40 years, and they were never told that they had the disease. So, trust is one issue, but trustworthiness is another issue."
To build trust, Dr. Warren says public health leaders need to work with trusted Black community leaders he calls "gatekeepers."
Warren says Black scientists, medical professionals, educators, and faith leaders must be included in the conversations about vaccines and the research and outreach initiatives.
"You've got a good message to send, but you have to have trustworthy messengers," Warren says. "And, I don't see enough of us in the public domain. I don't see enough of us being asked the questions. I think, until you get that engagement, there is always going to be a sense of distrust. We've got to shift from distrust to trust, and you get at trust through trustworthiness.”
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