Thread by @VABVOX

The #CNNTownHall, #TheColorOfCOVID, is one of the most critically important hours on TV. It will repeat later tonight and you can watch it online at CNN.com, later. BIPOC are disproportionately impacted by the #coronavirus in cases and deaths, in all age groups.

.@donlemon reports that "even if deemed safe by scientists" as the two approved #vaccines have been, "35% of Black Americans would still not be willing to take the vaccine." But they were willing to take the #vaccine if their personal physician recommended it.

Sandra Lindsay, dir of critical care nursing in NYC, was the 1st person in the US to get the vaccine. A Jamaican immigrant. She says, "The legacy of the past [Tuskeegee] looms darkly over Black and brown people. But in 26yrs of nursing I have never felt so afraid as from covid."

.@Surgeon_General Jerome Adams breaking down briefly as he describes the Tuskeegee experiments in detail. It's frankly gutting. As it should be. Adams got the #vaccine today on camera. He says there are "wrongs going on right now" & lays out the social issues that impact BIPOC.

Adams says Tuskeegee ended, but BIPOC don't have the same access to staying home, avoiding public transit, or even having access to medical care. Where was he the past four years on the health of BIPOC and poor people?? What he is detailing are such crucial data.
#CNNTownHall

Adams says that the legacy of Tuskeegee is only part of the story when we do not offer BIPOC the same #healthcare as their white peers. And that BIPOC are more likely to be hospitalised with COVID and to be sicker when they are.
#CNNTownHall

Dr. Fauci says it was a struggle to get a racial balance in the #vaccine trials for many of these historical reasons. He says some of the trials had better representation than others: US population is 12% Black. Pfizer was 9.1% Black, Moderna 9.7% Black.
#CNNTownHall

Fauci says he wanted to have not just the census demographic represented, but the % of "the burden of disease, which makes it much more likely for them to have a worse outcome." Fauci says this is a much more pressing issue as it causes more deaths among Black and brown people.

Fauci says the reason he is going out to communities of color to talk about this and has explained that a Black woman, Dr. Kizzy Corbett , was part of the development of the #vaccine, is to break down barriers to access and to people being suspicious or afraid.
#CNNTownHall

There was a doctored video going around Twitter today that should have been pulled by Twitter, allegedly of a Black nurse fainting from getting the #COVID #vaccine. This is literally how you kill people--by creating an atmosphere of distrust among the people most at risk.