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22 Dec, 8 tweets, 4 min read
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
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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More from @Reuters

23 Dec
Trump grants full pardons to 15 people, including Russia probe figures George Papadopoulos and Alex van der Zwan
George Papadopoulos, a former Trump campaign aide, pleaded guilty in 2017 to lying to FBI agents about the timing and significance of his contacts with people who claimed to have ties with Russian officials reut.rs/3nKAEWu reut.rs/3nKAEWu
Trump also pardoned Alex van der Zwaan, the Dutch son-in-law of Russian billionaire German Khan, who was sentenced to 30 days in prison and fined $20,000 for lying to U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators reut.rs/3nKAEWu
Read 4 tweets
22 Dec
At a loose end during Germany’s first lockdown, the four Schwaderlapp sisters decided to put their long hours indoors to good use - by inventing a coronavirus board game that is selling by the thousands reut.rs/37GoSXS
'Corona' can be played by up to four players, who compete to buy all the groceries on a shopping list for an elderly neighbor who is shielding against the virus
The players collect and swap game cards, and the winner is whoever delivers all the items first. Hurdles along the way include encountering the virus, which sends you into quarantine, or finding that hoarders have already snapped up all the pasta or toilet rolls
Read 5 tweets
22 Dec
So much has happened this year – the global pandemic, of course, but also political chaos, freak weather and wildfires, and protests everywhere.

So how do we capture 2020? @ReutersGraphics stitched together clippings from the longest year 👇 reut.rs/2WCdk1h 1/13
January
🦠 The world welcomed 2020 as wildfires and protests clouded celebrations. Cities close to Wuhan saw a rise in coronavirus cases 2/13
February
The first coronavirus-related death occurred outside China.

⚽ One of the last soccer matches was played with fans in the stadium. One month later, Valencia said 35% of the squad tested positive for the virus 3/13
Read 13 tweets
22 Dec
🪐The evening sky over the Northern Hemisphere treated stargazers to a once-in-a-lifetime illusion as the solar system’s two biggest planets appeared to meet in a celestial alignment that astronomers call the #GreatConjunction reut.rs/38vtUFy
The rare spectacle resulted from a near convergence of the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn that happened to coincide with Monday’s winter solstice, the shortest day of the year
For those able to observe the alignment in clear skies, the two frozen-gas spheres appeared closer and more vibrant - almost as a single point of light - than at any time in 800 years
Read 6 tweets
21 Dec
2020 has been a year like no other. We asked our readers to imagine they could go back in time and send a message to themselves one year ago. Here's a selection of their responses.
👇
'Go places; see movies; visit friends; eat nice meals out; stock up on Lysol, toilet paper, paper towels, bleach, cherry Coke and chocolate. You can never have too much chocolate.'
'Just remember that you can't grow without change. Because you have to burn it down first.'
Read 11 tweets
21 Dec
A new variant of the pandemic SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus is spreading rapidly in Britain and prompting high levels of concern among its European neighbors. The strain is said to be up to 70% more transmissible than the previously dominant strain in the UK reut.rs/37De7pd 1/5
Are the concerns justified?

Most scientists say yes. The new variant has rapidly become the dominant strain in cases of COVID-19 in parts of southern England, and has been linked to an increase in hospitalization rates, especially in London and in the adjacent county of Kent 2/5
Why?

The main worry is that the variant is significantly more transmissible than the original strain. Scientists say it is about 40%-70% more transmissible. This means it is spreading faster in Britain 3/5
Read 5 tweets

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