When a healthcare organization asked A.R. Bernard, head of a Brooklyn megachurch, to help boost acceptance of COVID vaccines in New York’s communities of color, he demurred.
Why some Black American pastors are hesitant reut.rs/37ENGiE @gabriellaborter @makinibrice 1/8
Why some Black American pastors are hesitant reut.rs/37ENGiE @gabriellaborter @makinibrice 1/8
Bernard worried some members of his congregation could view his participation as ‘joining forces with the system’ to use African Americans 'as guinea pigs' for vaccines that have been developed in record time. 2/8
Like most of the dozen Black faith leaders @Reuters interviewed, Bernard did not yet want to show public support for an inoculation he feels he does not know enough about and risk jeopardizing his community’s trust. 3/8
Hesitation to recommend a vaccination is striking because Black pastors have played a key role in educating their communities about the risks of COVID-19 for African Americans, who are 2.8 times more likely to die from it than white Americans, according to the CDC. 4/8
Public health officials hope Black faith leaders and other Black role models will help alleviate strong skepticism among African Americans about the safety of the vaccine, which is being distributed across the country. 5/8
Distrust is rooted in decades of unequal healthcare access and treatment, under-representation in clinical trials and a record of being used as unwitting test subjects. 6/8
Of the dozen Black church leaders interviewed, all said that they thought the vaccine was necessary to end the crisis, but only one was willing to endorse it outright at this time. 7/8
‘We have three options: vaccination, isolation or decimation’: Michigan Pastor George Waddles doubted vaccines before, but seeing suffering caused by COVID-19 has motivated him to encourage parishioners to take a leap of faith reut.rs/37ENGiE 8/8
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