Read on Twitter
Thinking about this again as I hear all these passive & aggressive "if you don't get vaccinated you deserve to die" posts. Yes, we want people to be vaccinated. But most people stop short of actually listening to why people are really concerned. Tuskegee ain't it. https://twitter.com/AmeliaNGibson/status/1337109060756377602
Smiling and nodding and saying "Mmhmmm. Great. Now get this vaccine" isn't going to work for a lot of people. A lot of this same. Same energy as the election. "DO YOU WANT TO DIE?? NO? Then you have to vote for our candidate." 
E.g., You'll often hear Black folks making jokes about getting the "real" vaccine and the "right" vaccine. Those tap into very real concerns about geographic discrimination and racial discrimination (in the US very often the same discrimination).
You'll hear concerns about lack of access to the vaccine. Being forced to take it. Testing different batches on different communities.
1. Different people have different concerns. Black people aren't a monolith.
2. A lot of people just don't trust our healthcare system.
1. Different people have different concerns. Black people aren't a monolith.
2. A lot of people just don't trust our healthcare system.
There are ways to address people's concerns - at least those about distribution plan. But you have to be willing to have messy conversations and make changes. And that isn't what the CDC (or anyone else) is recommending. Yelling about compliance just entrenches people.
Appeals to "pride" and shallow listening also aren't going to cut it for people whose issue is distrust (based on real experiences of mistreatment during the *same* pandemic). https://www.statnews.com/2020/12/10/engage-willing-skeptics-counter-covid-19-vaccine-hesitancy/
All these plans to just listen enough to be able to talk. smh. And y'all wonder why people don't trust you.
The trust issue here has something to do with the medicine - yes. But its also about the hubris & disregard endemic to the culture of American medicine, and how it continues to overlook the experiences and expertise of Black people. And this strategy feels like more of the same.
Remember these news stories? https://abcnews.go.com/Health/beloved-brooklyn-teacher-30-dies-coronavirus-denied-covid/story?id=70376445
At the same time, researchers were hypothesizing about Black people being genetically predisposed to die from COVID. We backed away from that, but settled on dismissing deaths of people with "pre-existing conditions."
At the same time, researchers were hypothesizing about Black people being genetically predisposed to die from COVID. We backed away from that, but settled on dismissing deaths of people with "pre-existing conditions."
Given that between 25and 51% of Americans have a "pre-existing condition," that became an easy way to dismiss deaths of BIPOC and disabled people who didn't receive the same level of care. "We should open! Let ppl with 'pre-existing conditions' fend for themselves!"
We are already seeing similar discussions around post-vaccine policy. This is all part of the same discussion. Institutional racism in medicine and public health isn't just about the medicine.
While they are right (Tuskegee was about withholding access to care), the parallelism doesn't matter. People are concerned about a value system that considers them disposable. That thinks their lives and deaths are cheap and excusable. This: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/05/wall-street-has-had-enough-of-the-lockdown
When safety/harm is defined in terms of liability (safety as the absence of preventable harm anyone?), then people become wary when ppl use the term invented to skirt financial liability for care to argue against ethical obligations for care. https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-ethics/2020/08/11/people-with-disabilities-are-worth-saving-too-ensuring-healthcare-equity-during-the-covid-19-pandemic/
We've seen institutions and public health officials argue that the costs of removing protections for staying at home in the interest of "opening" was worth it because of $. But those costs were borne disproportionately by POC & white disabled folks. These choices destroy trust.
Conspiracy theory fodder, See also, Actual Overreach: https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/07/us/florida-search-warrant-raid-rebekah-jones-invs/index.html
Again, the Florida situation isn't any doctor's fault. But government and medicine aren't separated in real life (no matter how we think of them in academia/science/industry), and conversations around trust in medicine have to include policing and state power.
Anyhow, someone should compare vaccine and election messaging aimed at Black people and communities.
(*not it* - I'm going to sit over here and keep doing work on trust and risk assessments)
(*not it* - I'm going to sit over here and keep doing work on trust and risk assessments)
