MADISON, Wis. — Communities of color are known to be disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. These same communities are also said to be some of the most hesitant to get the vaccine due to a history of distrust in the health care system.
Staff members at UW Health are working with local organizations who work with communities of color to inform them on the vaccine including what’s in it, what the side effects are, how accessible it will be and what the trial process involved.
UW Health’s Chief Diversity Officer Dr. Shiva Bidar-Sielaff said the staff members doing the outreach work are continuing to look at ways to continue the conversation. At the beginning of the month, Bidar-Sielaff participated in an online webinar hosted by the Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness to inform people about the vaccine and what her experience was like being the second UW Health staff member to participate in the AstraZeneca trial.
“The first day I got the first dose I was extremely tired that evening but I was so overly excited to be potentially a part of history,” Bidar-Sielaff said.
But Bidar-Sielaff knows her excitement about the vaccine is something not everyone feels.
“Communities of color have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. We know that we have a historic mistrust of healthcare and health systems. Historically that mistrust is based on some serious ethical wrongdoings in the past.”
Fellow UW Health physician Dr. Jasmine Zapata was a part of the same webinar. Zapata talked about where part of the mistrust comes from.
“In the 1930’s, the US Public Health Department partnered up with some researchers at Tuskegee University,” Zapata said. “They recruited about 300-400 Black men who had syphilis already and then they also had about 300 Black men who did not have syphilis. Basically, they told them they were treated for ‘bad blood’ and they would come in thinking they were getting treated. The unethical part about it was that they really weren’t. A couple years later when they actually did have a cure come out for syphilis which was penicillin, they withheld that treatment from the men that were in the study.”
Zapata said she understands where the mistrust comes from, but now asks her patients to evaluate all their options to make an informed decision about whether or not they will get the vaccine.
“What I’ve been doing and as I help people navigate making these decisions is [say], ‘OK let’s talk about the choice of getting the vaccine. Let’s talk about the potential benefits and let’s talk about the potential risks. This is real. Now let’s talk about the other option. The other option is not getting the vaccine. Let’s talk about the benefits of not getting it and then let’s talk about the risks if you do get COVID-19, what that means for you and your family.’ We’re never going to forget, but my question is will we forgive?” Zapata said.
UW Health’s Dr. Patricia Tellez-Giron, got the Pfizer vaccine Wednesday afternoon. As the co-chair of Madison’s Latinx Health Council, she said she hopes to set an example of the benefits of forgiving.
“I knew I had a responsibility not only to myself but to my community,” Tellez-Giron said. “So I educated myself very well about this vaccine and made sure it was going to be safe. We need to make our voices heard by getting the vaccine,” Tellez-Giron said. “We need to show the community at large that we are as much a part of this community as they are and we are going to actively participate in getting out of this pandemic.”
Bidar-Sielaff said after participating in the online webinar, the most common concerns from the community had to do with a lack of trust regarding the safety of the vaccine, how accessible the vaccine would be for communities of color including the hours the clinics will be open and if bi-lingual speakers would be available on site to help navigate the process. She and other staff are currently working on more outreach efforts to help inform more communities of color before the vaccine becomes widely available.
The Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness hosts bi-monthly online webinars informing people about COVID and the vaccine. To learn more about them, click here.
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