Doctor ‘walks the walk’ during pandemic
SACRAMENTO » Dr. David Tom Cooke says his choice to participate in a clinical trial for a coronavirus vaccine is like his grandmother's decision to leave the Jim Crow South to work in California's naval shipyards during World War II. She was determined to contribute even though the country didn't recognize her as worthy of full rights.
Today, it's Cooke's sense of duty and experience as a Black man that led him to test out Pfizer's vaccine in August and make it his mission to allay concerns about its safety among Black friends, family and community members. He's also driven by an understanding of skepticism toward the medical profession among many Black Americans, rooted in a history of poor health outcomes and abusive research.
“When you look at the scourge of the COVID- 19 pandemic, communities of color are disproportionately affected in regards to death,” said Cooke, head of general thoracic surgery at UC Davis Health, the Sacramento area's major trauma center. “Therefore, it's imperative that we enroll people of color into these clinical trials enough to show they're effective in these really atrisk communities.”
Cooke, 48, was concerned when he saw a lack of diversity among participants in Moderna's clinical trial. So when UC Davis had the opportunity to connect people with a trial by Pfizer, he volunteered. He got the first shot in August and recently learned he'd been given the actual vaccine.
“I felt that in order to increase enrollment in these clinical trials and make a difference in this global pandemic, I needed to walk the walk,” Cooke said.
For him, the understanding of distrust in the Black community is personal — even some of his own family didn't plan to take the vaccine until they learned he had tried it.
His parents, former principals in Oakland public schools, still feel the need to tell any new doctor or nurse they see that their son is a Harvard- trained surgeon. That's because they fear they won't get quality care otherwise, he said.