COVID-19 vaccine must be safe, equitable for Black community. Black doctors are working to ensure it

Sandra Lindsay, a Black nurse at New York’s Long Island Jewish Medical Center, was one of the first people in the United States to take the COVID-19 vaccine. 

She did it, according to an interview with the nurse featured in a New York Times report, to “inspire people who look like me.”

That’s not surprising. Black nurses have long provided selfless and invaluable care in service to communities made vulnerable by infectious disease, racism and poverty. They are indispensable, and enabling their access to COVID-19 vaccines has a multiplier effect in keeping Black communities healthy.

The fact that her inoculation was nationally televised is even more beneficial. 

I’ve had the privilege of serving a predominantly Black population as a family physician on the Near East Side of Columbus, Ohio for the past 19 years. I’ve seen firsthand how COVID-19 has become a stress test for the community.

I treated an emergency medical technician who developed prolonged illness after selflessly volunteering to perform screening tests for the disease. I’ve watched an essential worker in his 30s who was a former Division 1 college football player struggle on a ventilator and then spend four weeks in the ICU on dialysis. 

Nationally, Black people are 1.4 times more likely to be diagnosed with COVID-19, 4.7 times more likely to be hospitalized, and 2.8 times more likely to die as compared with white people.

As president of the National Medical Association — an organization of Black physicians — I see how the development of a vaccine that the majority of Black America doesn’t trust (according to a September poll from Pew) has become a stress test of the nation’s ability to defeat this pandemic.

Operation Warp Speed has resulted in the development of this vaccine at a rate that is unprecedented, further giving pause to a community that already has plenty of reason to be cautious about medical treatments promoted by the U.S. government. For four decades, the government experimented on Black men who were told they were getting treated for syphilis, but in fact were not. This Tuskegee Experiment was started by the U.S. Public Health Service in 1932. 

In fact, initial reports of COVID-19 infection and death were lacking when it came to race and ethnicity data. And although that improved, many demographic reports remain incomplete. Being poorly counted nationally despite differences in infection, hospitalization and death led to the demand that race and ethnicity be thoroughly collected and reported. As it became more evident that Black people and communities of color were being disproportionately affected by COVID-19, people from these same communities were not prioritized for diagnostic testing.

However, for three days the CDC changed its screening guidelines to reflect this reality and prioritized diagnostic testing of asymptomatic African Americans, Hispanics and some Native American tribes. Mysteriously, following the third day, this recommendation was removed from the CDC website and inquiry led to an answer from the CDC that prioritizing these groups within its guidelines was an error.

These inconsistencies, and the fear felt by Black America, is why the Black Coalition Against COVID-19 created “A Love Letter to Black America” — a site packed with information that brings together the combined expertise of Black health professionals, all focused on enhancing the health of the African American community. We know that to alleviate the worry of Black America, greater examination of vaccination data is a must.

During this pandemic, we have rededicated ourselves to providing trustworthy and scientifically based guidance that educates our community about COVID-19 prevention, treatment and acceptance of proven safe and effective vaccines.

The National Medical Association COVID-19 Task Force will be meeting again this week with the makers of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. 

We’ll discern the progress of the studies and look at the data from the vaccine trials to ensure that Black participants were included and that there was at least 10% enrollment of African Americans. We’ll also be discussing other safety issues that concern the Black community, such as whether there are precautions for patients with sickle cell disease or traits. 

A cloud of political influence appears to have affected decision making not only at the FDA, but also at the CDC. The NMA is serving in its role as the trusted messenger to the Black community. 

A consortium of Black medical schools — including Meharry Medical College, Howard University College of Medicine and Morehouse School of Medicine, among others — have formed a historic partnership to affirm that respect for Black bodies and Black lives must be a core value of our nation’s health, medical care and research enterprises.

Now that inoculations have begun, we must ensure that Black people aren’t left out of distribution. 

An upcoming virtual town hall will focus on equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines. 

In service to the Black community, we are keenly aware of our role as trusted messengers of health-related information.

I’ve been shown conspiracy theory videos that discourage vaccine uptake and asked for my opinion as a physician. One of the videos was being shared among a Christian church community and another was tailored for a Muslim audience. In both cases, the videos were professionally produced, and it would be difficult to discern the truth if one did not have a biomedical science background.

This speaks to the importance of the faith-based community to mitigate the impact of COVID-19, and I have collaborated with clergy leadership across the nation to help separate COVID-19 truth from fiction.

On one hand, Operation Warp Speed speaks to the urgency for finding a vaccine to mitigate death and despair related to COVID-19. On the other hand, the term has given pause to some people who fear that the process was rushed, and the resultant vaccines would be unsafe.

Nurses like Lindsay are helping our online and social media efforts to fight against misinformation and for fair testing, ensure equitable representation in science and ensure that Black communities get a safe vaccine. 

Leon McDougle is the president of the National Medical Association. Find the Love Letter to Black America at blackcoalitionagainstcovid.org.

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