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Black and Latino residents of New Jersey have suffered the brunt of the pandemic – disproportionate serious illness and more lost loved ones. A new study shows that while this collective experience encouraged them to take precautions against the virus, it has not dissuaded their skepticism of COVID-19 vaccines.
The results add urgency to the state’s vaccination efforts. New cases and hospitalizations of COVID-19 primarily affect the unvaccinated population, and the delta variant, which spreads twice as fast as the original variant, is now dominant in New Jersey. It represents 40% of recent cases.
“It’s almost like there is this parallel structure happening for people who are vaccinated versus people who are not vaccinated in terms of what you can and can’t do,” said Shawna Hudson, professor. of Family Medicine and Community Health at Rutgers Robert Wood. Johnson Medical School who co-authored the study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. “This sets up the system where we are currently exacerbating the problem for the populations that have the least ability to navigate it.”
The Rutgers study used focus group interviews for more than 100 participants to examine the perspectives of residents living in urban counties with high poverty rates who have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19. The researchers asked about respondents’ opinions on mitigating factors for the virus such as testing and vaccination. Overall, residents wanted more information about the vaccine, ranging from how it was developed so quickly, whether it would work against new variants, and how it might impact various groups of people.
Black residents said they were wary of the vaccine due to concerns about past medical experiments on the black community and racism. Latinos, especially undocumented immigrants, were also hesitant about the vaccine and wanted to see how others react first. They also cited logistical barriers to accessing testing sites or having to pay for a COVID-19 test in advance, which remains a concern, especially among unvaccinated groups.
While New Jersey ranks in the top 10 for vaccine coverage – with nearly 5 million people fully vaccinated – doses among black and Latino residents are still lagging behind. Statewide figures show that black residents received 7% of the doses and Latinos 15% of the doses when the two groups make up more than a third of the population. Over the past three weeks, those numbers have remained largely stagnant despite door-to-door efforts by a state-run volunteer community corps.
In June, New Jersey began providing more vaccines to smaller community sites and pop-up vaccination sites, including some primary care physicians who have long sought access. The state also deployed mobile immunization units in May, targeting cities with the lowest immunization rates.
“There are legitimate reasons why some people are not vaccinated in communities of color, particularly the African American community,” Gov. Phil Murphy said at a press briefing this week. “Our country’s history, especially with regard to this community and vaccines, is not pretty. It takes extra effort using role models, religious leaders, doctors, nurses in the big, deep, solid information campaign to overcome this. It is for me a legitimate challenge.
Hudson said his team’s study found residents were motivated to seek public health information and stop the spread of the virus by taking certain precautions, but did not embrace the vaccine.
“It’s very different when you engage in behaviors that don’t require any intervention from your body and very different when you take a vaccine,” she said.
The study urged state officials to focus on providing more evidence-based awareness through trusted community sources instead of general marketing efforts pushing vaccine availability, especially in the midst of a crisis. new warning from the Food and Drug Administration regarding an extremely rare side effect called Guillain-Barré syndrome which could be linked to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
“New York has done a really good job getting both primary care doctors and nurses and others to talk about their family experiences and why they did it themselves,” he said. Hudson said. “To be able to tell these stories and be more transparent about it, that was really what people were looking for, as opposed to you should just go do it because we are telling you.”
The death rate from the pandemic in the United States far exceeds the rate of vaccine-related adverse events.
One study participant said he was not at all comfortable with the vaccine, in part because of the way authorities deployed it. “They talk about low-income communities receiving vaccines, early minorities, and black and Latino communities. They want us to get it first, and I’m like no. It doesn’t seem fair, ”they said.
Another study participant whose loved ones died from the virus expressed concerns about side effects.
“I have people close to me who are dying, someone very dear, but at the same time, we are all different [as] to the extent that it will affect us all differently. So with these negative results, we may … we react to it differently. So I’m really concerned about this, ”the person in the study said.
After more than 330 million doses delivered to at least 185 million Americans, the vaccines have been shown to be extremely safe. The pandemic case fatality rate in the United States (1,838 deaths per million people) far exceeds the rate of vaccine-related adverse events, such as severe allergic reactions (2 to 5 people per million vaccinated), atypical blood clots (2.9 people per million) or Guillain-Barré Syndrome (7.8 people per million).
These last two adverse events are only related to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. But the same pattern applies to the rare cases of temporary and treatable heart inflammation seen in people under 30 who have received Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. COVID-19 itself has caused much more serious illness in this age group (152,000 total hospitalizations since last August) than vaccine-related cases of this heart problem (633 confirmed since April).
“The remaining unknowns about new vaccines need to be recognized and described for these communities to make informed decisions,” said co-author Manuel Jimenez, assistant professor of pediatrics, family medicine and community health at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, in a statement. declaration.
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