Thread by @DrBrittaniJ

Let’s be honest.

Many Black person will refuse to take this COVID vaccine bc most of us don’t trust that white people or the government mean us any good.

And when that happens, know that the hesitance is not some baseless paranoia. It is completely rational.

Let me explain.

2/ Black people’s mistrust in Medicine and Public Health is well-deserved and completely rational based on what you all have done to us, and continue to do to us.

Let me say clearly: I will 100% get the vaccine. I believe in it. I trust it.

3/ But when my Black patients balk at the idea, I won’t judge them. Because I intimately I understand their fear.

Listen. Even I’m a physician myself, and even I don’t trust ya’ll.

Being a doctor has made me LESS trusting of the Medical Institution as a whole, not more.

4/ I KNOW Medicine is deeply racist.

It is another American institution, like so many others, that mistreats & ultimately kills Black people. Over and over. With impunity.

This is not a theory...I live it.

As both patient & provider.

Listen to me.

This is important.

5/ A lot more Black people with die if we don’t get this vaccine campaign right.

The odds are not in our favor based on everything that has led to this moment.

We need laser focus and surgical precision to pull this off.

But I believe we can.

6/ If we are serious about addressing the racial Heath disparities around COVID-19, we need a legitimate, well-planned and executed approach to getting Black and brown folx to buy in.

The normal approach WILL fail. Completely.

So how do we do it?

7/ As a Black woman and front line physician currently caring for patients with and without COVID on Chicago’s South Side - here is what will ACTUALLY work in my view:

8/ First, we need to admit that white people and the government have little to no credibility in the average Black person’s eyes.

That’s not a debate. That’s a forgone conclusion.

What’s more, there is not enough time to correct that perception before this vaccine comes live.

9/ There’s not enough time because white people and the white supremacist institutions that run our country have been abusing and terrorizing Black people for over 400 years. And continue to do so actively.

Again, this point is not a debate.

10/ First slavery, then Black Codes, then Jim Crow, now mass incarceration, police brutality, and systematic oppression through a myriad of current racist laws and policies.

The harsh fact of the matter is...white people simply don’t deserve Black people’s trust.

At all.

11/ You all have not earned it. And you certainly won’t earn it in time for this latest vaccination effort.

Let that hope go.

In Medicine, we triage during emergencies.

The trust can’t be repaired in time. We can and should fix that on the back end...once we survive this.

12/ If health systems, the government and providers *really* want Black people to take this vaccine, you all better start passing the mic and passing the power to act to Black and brown people.

And fast.

13/ And not just wealthy Black people, Black academics and other Black “elites”

Give the mic and give MONEY to Black people on the ground.

Give it to grassroots organizers. Give it to Black church leaders. Give it to the people who live, work and love in Black communities.

14/ Listen to them. Follow them. Protect them. Support them. Uplift them. Pay them.

Then let them work.

They lead. You don’t.

15/ White ppl - This is bigger ego. Or at least it should be.

If you are not the right person to get this done...it is okay. I promise.

Just PLEASE be honest with yourself about it.

16/ Then use your power, position and privilege to empower the right people to get this done.

Why?

Because you are still good person despite the horrible, racist lies we were all taught about each other.

And because it is the right thing to do now.

17/ One final piece of parting advice, that never fails.

If you get lost out there, just remember:

Listen to Black women.

😉

New here? Here’s my story:

drbrittanij.medium.com/the-moment-i-b…