THREAD: I’m covering a town hall tonight for @cronkitenews regarding COVID-19 vaccine education and myth debunking.

A lot of the information tonight is set to address minority communities as they are being diagnosed with COVID-19 at disproportionate rates.

Alyssa Chapital, Hospital Medical Director at Mayo Clinic in Arizona, said white Arizonans should also be concerned about the hesitation from minority communities in receiving the vaccine.

“Without those communities, we won’t gain the herd immunity we need,” she said.

Richard White, assistant prof. of internal medicine and pediatrics at Mayo Clinic, said healthcare workers need to be more mindful of healthcare illiteracy among communities as POC are unable to access telehealth and other online resources as easily as some of their white peers.

Francisco Moreno with @uarizona acknowledged there’s a lot of mistrust from people when it comes to both the virus and the vaccine. He said people least likely to get the vaccine are women, our Black and Latino populations, those in poverty and those w/limited education.

Ivan Porter, also with Mayo Clinic, said he’s been “fighting the lack of trust” since the vaccine was first released.

“This is decades of work,” he said. “It’s OK to be afraid of what we don’t know, but it’s not OK to ignore what’s right in front of us that we do know.”

Juan Banacloche worked on the FDA committee responsible for recommending the emergency use of the Pfizer vaccine.

He said the process of authorizing the vaccine has been public and transparent. “All the documentation that was presented ... everything is out there.”

He said minority populations were a big part of the vaccine trials, with “more than 25% identifying as Hispanic or Latino.” It was just as effective for them as it has been for the white population, Banacloche said.

There is a chance you will have side effects after the second dose, he said, but those side effects only last for about 24 hours. “They have nothing compared with even a mild case of COVID,” Banacloche said. “The safety of the vaccine is excellent.”

When it comes to the long-term, Banacloche said there isn’t a lot of information about the efficacy of the vaccine yet. There’s only four months worth of data at the moment, so that’s how long he can say the protection lasts for now.

White was asked about misinformation regarding infertility after getting the vaccine. He said there is no data supporting that whatsoever. “It’s important to get your information from trusted sources.” He recommends the Mayo Clinic’s website and the @CDCgov.

Another fact-check: Banacloche reassured viewers that the vaccine does not alter a person’s DNA. He said the MRNA from the vaccine can’t get into the nucleus of cells, which makes it impossible to change DNA.

Porter just added there is also no data proving that there are different or worsened side effects from the vaccine for older people or those with underlying conditions.