Thread by @NBCNews

One thing that may be more important than getting vaccines to Black Americans is increasing their trust in the process.

Some Black medical providers say the distrust is both completely warranted and deeply concerning.

nbcnews.to/3gBo8WC (1/7) #NBCNewsThreads

Generations of experimentation on Black Americans and dismissal at the hands of medical professionals have left many skeptical of the medical field and wary of taking a vaccine. (2/7)

“I feel like I’m screaming into a void in trying to get people to understand that I can see that this will fail if we continue to do what we normally do,” says Dr. Brittani James, a family physician in a low-income and predominantly Black section of Chicago’s South Side. (3/7)

Now, Black doctors and medical providers are taking key roles in doing something they say should have been done decades ago: working to build trust in medicine in Black communities and acknowledge past harms. (4/7)

“There is a hunger ... to engage in these issues when they are presented with the community’s issues in mind,” said Dr. Reed Tuckson, leader of the Black Coalition Against COVID-19. The coalition has held events and ran campaigns to combat misinformation about vaccines. (5/7)

A history of racism in medicine has left cultural & social scars on Black communities. Tuckson says now is different, with Black scientists directly involved in vaccine creation: “There were no African American physicians or scientists or health policy leaders in the past.” (6/7)

“This pandemic should serve as a wake-up call for how fragile our health care system is and that there is room for improvement,” said Martha Dawson, president of the National Black Nurses Association.
(7/7) nbcnews.to/3gBo8WC