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But this meeting is going to be different. Since my last check, Johnson & Johnson has obtained emergency use authorization for their single injection Covid vaccine. As a thank you to those of us who took part in the randomized phase three vaccine trial, the company canceled the participants’ knowledge and administered the vaccine to the placebo group.
I look forward to this revelation with the same exuberance that I had as a child during Christmas week. All these gifts under the tree are begging to be opened! But this time, my gift is protection from a deadly virus – an inoculation that literally saves lives.
My goal from day one has been to help the country overcome vaccine hesitancy and encourage people – especially people of color – to trust vaccines. Since joining the trial, my efforts have been highlighted on People.com and in Essence magazine. A few friends have told me that my participation encouraged them to get the vaccine. On social media, some people have said they would consider getting the vaccine now. I see all of this as victories, but I know some minds will be harder to change.
Jamecka Britton, a 35-year-old black woman living in Atlanta, is one of those people who are reluctant to get the vaccine. Hailing from Memphis, TN, she has a bright smile that she says is always hidden behind an N95 mask wherever she goes. She also has a warm sense of humor. I know this because we have continued to deliver messages to each other about the nation’s efforts to immunize as many people as possible – one making a point, the other countering. Messages are often sprinkled with good-hearted GIFs. What makes her position more remarkable to me is that she also happens to be a registered nurse.
Britton, who has treated patients with Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic, says the virus has affected every part of his community.
“It was extremely, extremely difficult,” Britton told me. “When it started I remember coming home crying.”
She told me about the myriad of people she knows who have died from the coronavirus – beyond the patients she treats in hospital. Their loss also affected her.
“To see patients in their twenties with no pre-existing health issues,” she said, adding, “… they entered the hospital thinking they had a cold and the next day there was a ventilator and the doctor said there was nothing else. that they can do. “
Yet despite everything she’s been through thanks to Covid, she is still not vaccinated.
“I’m not against vaccines,” Britton clarified immediately. “I just feel like more testing needs to be done on the vaccine to make sure it’s safe.”
As I reported on vaccine reluctance, I have spoken to many people of color about their fears and have researched to fully understand why this reluctance persists. On my morning walks, I listened to “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents” by Isabel Wilkerson and 2007, Harriet A. Washington “Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black American from Colonial Times to the Present “.
From the decades-long Tuskegee experiment where doctors suspended treatment for syphilis from involuntary black men to harvesting a piece of a cancerous tumor from Henrietta Lacks in the 1950s – a tissue known as of HeLa cells, studies and medical breakthroughs for years – all unbeknownst to him, there are undoubtedly high-profile examples of medical professionals using black Americans for experimentation without their consent.
However, as I speak with Britton and think back to what I’ve gleaned from my research, I realize that it’s likely that a less sensational and more personal story of individual doctor / patient breaches could really be. at the base of the suspicion of science. behind these new vaccines.
It was the myriad of surgeries, amputations, and case-by-case tests endured by blacks and other people of color that ultimately may have disrupted a loved one’s quality of life for doctors to study or refine a technique before proposing skill enhancement or medicine for their white patients. Oral histories of wrongdoing and disrespect for medicine have been shared in many black families, leading to generations of fear and mistrust.
“I talk about it daily with my family actually. And to be completely honest we are all very, very hesitant to get the vaccine given the history of malpractice and neglect in the African American community.” said Britton, acknowledging this reality. in its own roots. “I have, you know, parents who have expressed concern to me about lab rats, testing, and being, without a quote, like black people for vaccines.”
“I guess it would probably be shocking for you to know that I signed up for a vaccine trial,” I told her, interested in how she would react.
“No seriously?” she replied, really surprised. “I am impressed. I am honestly impressed.”
I told him that I joined the trial to help neutralize the fear – a fear that I understand and must be recognized. “But I also know that we are living in another era. And the only thing that has happened in America is that we have a lot of medical professionals who look like you, who look like me, who look like our cousins, who are now at the forefront of design and development. understanding the research and technology required to make these vaccines, ”I explained.
What I’m trying to figure out, I tell Britton, is what could be done, if anything, to get people to get vaccinated.
“I have seen a lot of my colleagues who have received the vaccine and it makes me want to be vaccinated more. However, I would still like to see a lot of African Americans get the vaccine, ”Britton explained. “A lot of the doctors of color I know are unwilling to receive the vaccine, which still makes me hesitate.”
“So if you saw doctors across the country and we had a lot of black doctors, would that help you?” I asked.
“It would help,” she replied.
It’s an angle taken by the Black Coalition Against Covid and the Kaiser Family Foundation, which highlights black scientists, doctors and nurses endorsing vaccines in a montage of question-and-answer interviews and testimony on camera. with the comedian and host of CNN. “United Shades of America” W. Kamau Bell.
“When the vaccine came in, I felt this intense amount of honor,” says Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice, president of the Morehouse School of Medicine, in the video.
Of course, I sent the video to nurse Britton – followed by a photo of one of my doctors, who happens to be a black woman, getting the shot.
The goal is to add more voice to the mix of people of color who proudly let the world know they’ve been successful and encourage others to do the same. The goal is to get more people vaccinated so that we can live long and healthy lives and overcome this pandemic.
“This is the big moment!
As for me, while waiting to know if I received the real vaccine or the placebo in December, I go back and forth in my head to find out which category I think I belong to. The animals in the framed prints on the wall – and ode to Ark Clinical’s name – stare at me. I hope the rising tide of vaccinations will help lift us all up.
“This is the big moment!” said Dr Kenneth Kim, medical director and CEO of Ark Clinical Research, entering the room. None of us know my immunization status yet. Nurse practitioner Amber Mottola hands her a sheet of paper. “Okay, so let’s take a look at this together,” Dr Kim told me. “So what does it say?”
“I have the placebo!” I read aloud, Dr. Kim echoing the same words. I thought I got the real thing.
Even though it turns out that I had not been vaccinated before, I was about to be. Mottola already had a needle ready.
My experience of testing the Covid vaccine has been positive. I got to see how these tests work up close; I feel better informed to have conversations about vaccine reluctance and now I am receiving the gift of immunization. “Today is a good day anyway,” I tell them.
“Thank you for being a trailblazer because if it wasn’t for people like you who volunteer, we would never have gotten this vaccine approved,” Dr Kim said in response before giving me the plan. of match. “We will write down the time we give your dose and then there will be a 15 minute observation.”
“Okay! I’m still very excited,” I exclaimed, the smile on my face evident even with my mask on.
“You’ve waited a long time for this, and you deserve it!” Mottola told me while cleaning a stain on my arm and slipping the needle in. “One, two – Full dose!”
“Oh yeah! It was really different,” I said, noting that the vaccine was heavier in my arm than the placebo.
“Vaccinated!” Amber and Dr Kim happily said.
With just one hit, I now get the protection I want all Americans to have. Over the next two weeks, my body will fully strengthen its response against the deadly coronavirus.
Under my mask, I still can’t stop smiling.
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