Prayer and science led me to the vaccine

Opinion polls show African Americans have the greatest hesitation of any group about the Covid vaccine. These reservations are rooted in centuries of abuse as well as illegal and unethical experimentation by the country’s medical establishment. In the 19th century, James Marion Sims, the man considered the father of modern gynecology, conducted dozens of experiments on enslaved women without anesthesia. The infamous “Tuskegee study of untreated syphilis in black males” continued into the 1970s.

The results of health care are not encouraging either. African Americans have twice the infant mortality rate of whites. African American women are more than three times more likely than their white counterparts to die from pregnancy-related causes. The death rate from breast cancer is 42% higher for black women than for white women. My father passed away when I was only 16, largely from misdiagnosed and abused hypertension. Disturbing reports of disparate treatments at U.S. healthcare facilities have surfaced during the pandemic.

Unfounded rumors of an attempt to use the vaccine to wipe out the black community have gained traction among my fellow African Americans. I understand the general suspicion, but the painful truth is that black people need the vaccine more than anyone else. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says we are almost three times more likely than whites to die from Covid.

As a minister, I have personally witnessed these deaths. I have buried many friends and church members. At the height of the pandemic, I regularly received reports of two or three deaths per day. I struggled to comfort and counsel their survivors, most of whom couldn’t be in the same room as their loved ones when they took their last breath. Over the weekend, I lost an old friend and colleague to the virus. But I believe that the God who brought us through slavery, Jim Crow, the Spanish flu and the lynchings can also guide us through this crisis.

As a father, grandfather, pastor, and community leader, I understood the importance of understanding the vaccine. It meant getting the facts early on from the most qualified scientists and doctors. A roundtable I hosted in early January with several of the country’s leading infectious disease experts – including Anthony Fauci, Kizzmekia Corbett and Professor of Medicine Onyema Ogbuagu at Yale – provided a detailed description of the development process for vaccines. Particularly helpful were the details provided by Dr Corbett, a young black woman and key scientist behind the development of Moderna’s new mRNA vaccine.

I received great advice from my longtime doctor, a black woman and member of my church who received the vaccine herself. Because I believe in the multitude of tips, I have also spoken with several leading infectious disease specialists in the Dallas area, a metropolis that is home to many world-renowned healthcare facilities.

In the end, it came to common sense. I am a 63 year old black male, somewhat overweight and with an underlying medical condition. The vaccine has been shown to decrease the chances of people like me catching the virus. To date, side effects from the vaccine have been minimal or nonexistent. It is true that no one knows anything about the potential long term side effects. But here’s what we know: The virus has killed more than 500,000 people in this country alone, but the vaccine has yet to kill a single person. In addition, there is a lot of information about the persistent debilitating symptoms in those who survive the virus.

I do not consider myself to be a supporter of the vaccine. It’s a personal decision. But you shouldn’t be making a critically important personal decision without any information – or without information. In an age when the line between fact and fiction is gradually eroding, it has never been more important to prevent people from being swayed by disinformation or the countless lies that spread across the internet.

Here’s my unsolicited advice: do your own research. Pray. Consult several credible sources, from your personal physician to federal agencies like the CDC. Your sincere quest for the truth could save your life and your loved ones.

Bishop Jakes is the senior pastor of Potter’s House, a 30,000 member church based in Dallas.