Both Anti-Vaxxers and Vaccine Hestitants are susceptible to conspiracy theories but their opposition to COVID-19 vaccines is not the same thing and should be addressed differently.
White anti-vaxxers are largely, but not entirely, part of a right wing anti-government political movement. Ironically, their banners proclaim “My Body, My Choice,” but many want to deny reproductive freedom to women. The situation is enflamed by rightwing politicians and radio and television shock jocks. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who will not say whether she was vaccinated, was suspended from Twitter for promoting vaccine misinformation. Dick Farrel, a conservative radio host and vaccine skeptic in Florida, started urging listeners to get vaccination just before he died from COVID-19 complications in August. COVID misinformation runs rampant on social media where crazy vaccine alternatives like the animal anti-parasitic medicine ivermectin is being promoted. I have little sympathy for anti-vaxxers who proudly proclaim their patriotism and belief in American values, while declaring their right to subject other people to infection, serious illness, and a potentially deadly disease.
In New York City, only 28 percent of African Americans between the ages 18 to 44 are fully vaccinated, far below the overall vaccination rate. Vaccine hesitancy in the Black community is rooted in a history of discrimination and medical malpractice that leaves many African Americans suspicious. During slavery days, gynecologist James Marion Sims conducted experimental surgery on enslaved African women without benefit of antiseptic or anesthesia. In the twentieth century, African American men with treatable syphilis were allowed to suffer and die at part of the Tuskegee Study so the United States Public Health Service could track the process of the disease. African American women in the South, including Civil Rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer, were given unnecessary hysterectomies that left them unable to have children. Today, African Americans are disproportionately involved in medical tests that do not require informed consent and drug companies continue to use Africa to test unproven drugs.
Vaccine hesitancy is not helped by celebrity lunacy, like Nicki Minaj who promoted rumors that the COVID vaccine will make Black men impotent or Kyrie Irving who also believes the world is flat.
There is similar pattern of anti-vaxxers and vaccine hesitancy in Israel and Palestine where two groups resist vaccination. Ultra-Orthodox Jews, known as the Haredim, base their opposition to vaccination on their rejection of secular authority and claim to live by God’s laws. Palestinians, who live under an Israeli occupation, are hesitant to take a vaccine promoted by the Israeli government.
There is some hope that the anti-vaxxer movement and African American vaccine hesitancy may be in decline. A new Kaiser Family Foundation survey reported that the vaccination gap between Latino, African American, and white adults has almost completed closed and in each group over 70% of adults have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine.
New York State’s requirement that health care workers to receive coronavirus vaccines and the city’s mandate that school personnel be vaccinated appears to have pressured thousands of holdouts to receive last-minute shots.
Dr. Ala Stanford formed the Black Doctors Covid-19 Consortium to bring testing and vaccinations to communities of color hit hard by the pandemic. She meets with student groups to respond to their concerns about COVID vaccines. Watch her video.
Black celebrities have also begun to challenge vaccine hesitancy. Basketball superstar LeBron James announced, “I know that I was very skeptical about it all. But after doing my research and things of that nature, I felt like it was best suited for not only me but for my family and my friends, and that’s why I decided to do it.”
All-time basketball great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar wrote on his web site, “it’s so shocking and disappointing to see so many people, especially people of color, treat the vaccination like it’s just a matter of personal preference, like ordering no onions on your burger at a drive-thru. While I can understand the vaccine hesitancy of those who have been historically marginalized and even abused by the health care system, enough scientific documentation has been given to the public to set that past behind us for now. Yes, we should never forget. Those experiences should sharpen our critical thinking to not accept things blindly. But it doesn’t mean we reject things blindly. The drowning man doesn’t ask if a racist made the life preserver keeping him afloat, only that it works to save his life . . . those who promote hesitancy and ‘more research’ have blood on their hands. Worse, the kind of conspiracy theories and pseudoscience pundits spread is the kind of selective ‘science’ that white people used to justify enslaving Black people.”
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