‘ I WAS AFRAID OF DYING’
Why some feared getting the COVID vaccine— but decided to get it anyway
For a long time, Honda Smith, an alder in New Haven, was too afraid to get the COVID- 19 vaccine.
“I was afraid of dying, and I was afraid the vaccination was not going to work,” she said. “I was afraid because I was listening to Facebook doctors, and not trusting the science and the real doctors.”
Those involved in Connecticut’s vaccine distribution say the reasons behind such hesitancy vary. Some feel the vaccine approval process was rushed, while others may have trouble obtaining accurate and clear information.
And in communities of color, fears run deeper, stemming from a history of mistreatment.
Experts say the vaccine is safe and has been thoroughly tested, even if the process seems rushed. But a census. gov study from late January found about onequarter of U. S. adults were unwilling or unlikely to get the vaccine.
( A DataHaven survey from last summer found that 20 percent of Connecticut residents would not take a vaccine if it became available.)
Smith’s reluctance came from misleading information she saw on social media, she said, adding that she became more comfortable with the idea of getting vaccinated as she started researching the science behind it.
But it was a mid- February conversation with her oldest sister, an Arizona resident who is over 70, that really changed Smith’s mind
“She was saying that she was waiting to go back for her second dose of the vaccine,” Smith said. “I was like, OK, I’m gonna just, you know, woman up and go and take this vaccination.”
Another push came from Smith’s doctor, who told her the vaccine was safe, she said.
Smith got her first shot late last month. It was partly for her own safety, but also to set an example for her community.
“I’m just hoping that those that do follow me and those that trust me will do as I have done,” she said.
Other than a runny nose, Smith said, she did not have any problems from the vaccine.
The weight of history
Smith got vaccinated at a clinic hosted by New Haven’s Varick Memorial AME Zion Church, which serves one of the city’s historically Black neighborhoods.
“I have witnessed a lot of that vaccine hesitancy among African Americans,” said Varick’s pastor, the Rev. Kelcy Steele. “It’s a cultural issue. … I’ve been able to encourage a few who were on the fence to get the vaccination, but still there are those individuals who are opting out.”
Historic wrongs against Black Americans, with the Tuskegee Study perhaps the most infamous example, can fuel fear of vaccination, according to Steele and others.
In the Tuskegee Study, which lasted from 1932 to 1972, researchers in Alabama tracked Black men with syphilis to study how the disease progressed, without informing the men of the study’s purpose or offering them treatment, even when penicillin was introduced in the 1940s as the drug of choice.
Then there was Henrietta Lacks, a Black woman who in the 1950s was treated for cancer at Johns Hopkins.
Lacks’ cells were taken without her permission, according to Maya Doyle, a Quinnipiac University professor of social work.
Those cells have been replicated thousands of times, Doyle said, calling Lacks’ story “another example of taking advantage and using people of color as part of experiments without their knowledge and consent.”
The Rev. Iona Smith Nze, of the Bethel AME church in Bridgeport, said history weighed on her as she decided whether to get vaccinated.
“I come from a culture and a people that are very aware of the Tuskegee experiment, very aware of Henrietta Lacks,” she said.
It was “in ( her) DNA” to be skeptical, Nze continued.
“I don’t want to be a guinea pig,” she said.
But Nze, who also was worried about the trial period for the vaccine, ultimately decided to get it.
She was inspired partly by her older congregants, who got vaccinated despite their knowledge of past wrongs.
“They were willing …. to take the vaccine in order to protect themselves, and I couldn’t look away from that,” Nze said. “Once they told me that they had gotten their first and then their second vaccines, I felt more confident than ever to do it, and to be a role model with them.”
Addressing concerns
Aaron Best, pastor of St. Matthew Baptist Church in Bridgeport, hears about twice a day from people worried about getting the vaccine, he said, adding that they often mention the Tuskegee study.
To ease these concerns, Best said, he points out that the vaccine is not targeted to a specific group of people – it’s global.
“My community needs to really know the facts, and they need to be educated more on this vaccine, and how it will save their lives and their families’ lives,” Best said.
Experts also said providing good information is important in addressing vaccine hesitancy, not just among people of color but among the general population, too.
“What I try to tell people is being hesitant is normal, having questions is natural, but it’s where we get our information from that’s important,” said Dr. Lisa Cuchara, a professor of biomedical engineering at Quinnipiac University.
Some folks have told Cuchara they were worried about getting the vaccine because they believed it could change their DNA, which experts say is not true.
“MRNA is just like an instruction manual,” Dr. Brita Roy, an assistant professor of medicine at Yale, explained. “Your cell reads those instructions and makes a protein that is on the surface of the virus cells, and then that instruction manual is destroyed.”
Your body then learns to recognize that protein and develops an immune response against it, Roy said.
Another common concern is how quickly the vaccine was developed. Torrington resident Tony Holmes, who said he doesn’t plan to get vaccinated, noted that vaccines usually are tested for four to five years before they’re used on the public.
“This one is less than a year old,” he said
But according to Roy, “the trials were actually the largest trials that we ever had and they all followed the standard trial protocols.”
Several factors helped speed development, including global collaboration and government funding, she said, adding that finding volunteers to test the vaccines proved easier than ever before.
“There were no shortcuts,” Roy said.