Biden adviser urges need for minorities to be vaccinated
NEW HAVEN — The Rev. Elvin Clayton’s granddaughter asked for one thing from him for Christmas — a visit from her grandparents.
But he couldn’t give that to her because of the pandemic. His congregation also couldn’t gather for services.
It’s been a dark time for many, Clayton noted.
But there is a “bright line shining at the end of the tunnel,” he said, as vaccines become available and society starts to be able to resume somewhat normal patterns of life.
“It’s a difficult thing when you can’t gather for worship, to worship a God in times of death, and we pastors can no longer hold the hands of parishioners and loved ones and comfort families,” said Clayton. “This will pass pretty soon, we hope. We are rising.”
Clayton, pastor of St. Stephens AME ZION Church in Bridgeport, and Yale-affiliated officials spoe dthis week in an effort to allay community fears, as they spoke of the importance of getting black and brown residents to register for inoculation against COVID-19.
Marcella Nunez-Smith, an associate dean at Yale and co-chairwoman of President Joe Biden’s coronavirus advisory board, said we, collectively, needed to help people become more confident in the vaccine and provide more immediate access, so that people can receive the medication without having to actively pursue it.
“Right now, we see people chasing vaccines. That’s what happening. Everyone’s sitting with eight computers and refreshing,” said NunezSmith. “Pretty soon, vaccines are going to have to find people.”
Nunez-Smith said the Biden administration was working to help with mobile vaccination units and provide vaccinations to local pharmacies, so people can receive the medication whenever they’re ready.
The Rev. Leroy Perry, pastor at St. Stephens AME ZION Church in Branford, said he and Clayton, both Yale cultural ambassadors, had taken part in clinical trials for the Pfizer vaccine, in part to help inspire confidence.
“Part of the reason that we took part in the study was to say to our communities that we thought this was an important step for all of us. And we wanted to show, and to have them see, that we believed in it enough to take it, that it was safe, and it was critical, particularly for our population that was being impacted in such a dramatic way,” said Perry. “I tell all my friends and all my congregants — I got the shot. That’s good news. That’s gospel news.”
Perry said there are challenges faced by members of the Black community in America. Some seniors do not have the technology necessary to access Zoom, email, to book medicine appointments; some men, returning from prison, seeking to care for their children, face a lack of possibilities because of their records.
There is a sense of hopelessness among struggling people, he said — death becomes less important.
“I think COVID has impacted all of our communities, but I think for minorities, it’s hit us three, four times as hard, with regards to unemployment, with regards to housing, with regards to stress,” said Perry. “It’s devastating. If there was any time in America when America needs to come together and start from the bottom up, this is that time.”
Nancy Brown, dean of the Yale School of Medicine, said Black and Hispanic Americans had been three times more likely to be hospitalized during the pandemic, and twice as likely to die of the disease.
Dr. Thomas Balcezak, vice president of the Yale New Haven Health System, said the coronavirus had compelled the community to come together in remarkable ways, as health care providers met the unprecedented challenges of the pandemic.
Since Dec. 15, 2020, the health system has vaccinated approximately 70,000 people with the required two doses and another roughly 30,000 with the first, Balcezak said.
The vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna require two shots, while the newer Johnson & Johnson vaccine requires only one.
Earlier this month, Yale New Haven officials said more than 75 percent of those vaccinated by the health system had been Caucasian.
About 15 percent had been Latino; 10 percent African American; and “high single digits” of Asian Americans, Balcezak said at the time.
The health system has worked to provide access to people of color by placing vaccination sites in the community, including at the Floyd Little Athletic Center in New Haven, Balcezak said Thursday. But it can be difficult for people to navigate the process of booking an appointment.
He suggested that people struggling call 211, where state officials will direct people to the closest opportunity, or 833-ASKYNHH, where hospital officials will lend a hand.
“But still, we’re not making the progress we’d like to see. We’re going to have to be smarter; we’re going to have to listen to our communities about how we’re going to (improve) registration,” said Balcezak.
Dr. Onyema Ogbuagu, associate professor of medicine at Yale, said the long-term efficacy of the vaccines still is being studied, as clinical trials for the vaccine would still be going on for years.
At this point, based on the early data and without a disease variant that points to a different conclusion, he said the scientific community believes people should be protected by the vaccine without a booster for at least the next year or so.
Clayton said he was unafraid of receiving the vaccine, as the clinical trial had been going on for a time. He realized later that he had actually received the vaccine, not a placebo.
“And boy, that was a happy day,” said Clayton. “I did this because, early on, there were few people of color that participated in the study . ... I think (Perry and I) did a little (to) help our cause, and because of it, I think our community, and the world, have been helped.”
In response to a question about undocumented immigrants, Nunez-Smith noted there is no immigration activity at vaccination sites and data is not shared with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, among others.
She said the country needs to stop asking people about their citizenship status or mandating identification, as both provide structural barriers for people seeking vaccination.
“We talk about vaccine confidence. The questions people have about vaccination are going to be really unique,” said Nunez-Smith. “These messages have to be tailored. ... How do we make sure that we’re addressing all of these different concerns, and people are hearing this from people they trust?”
Perry said he had been struck by the fact that three major vaccines had been developed, given that three is an important number in the Bible.
“We’re just urging everyone to take this vaccine,” said Perry. “To trust, in this pandemic, the best solution that all of our great minds have come up with.”
The complete forum has been posted for public consideration on the Facebook page for Clinical Research at Yale.
Donald Trump last year publicly worried that the explosion in voting by mail during the pandemic would increase turnout so much that “you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again.” But a new study shows the record rates of mail voting in 2020 didn’t help Democrats or lead to an increase in voting.
The research is only the latest in a years-long number of studies finding no partisan benefit to mail voting. But it also draws the conclusion that making it easier to vote did not increase voting levels because voters were already highly motivated to participate in the 2020 contest.
“We find a pretty precisely zero effect on turnout,” said Jesse Yoder, one of the study’s authors and a Ph.D. student in political science at Stanford University. “Voter interest was really driving turnout more than these convenience voting forms.”
The researchers proved this with a novel approach — examining turnout rates in Texas, which, unlike many states, did not ease its mail voting restrictions during the pandemic. Voters 65 and older could vote by mail automatically, while younger ones still had to provide a legally justified excuse.
The researchers compared the voting rates of 65-year-olds with automatic access to mail voting to those of 64-year-olds who lacked them. The two age groups voted at identical rates and there were only .2% more Democrats in the 65-year-old group than in the 64-year-old one, showing mail voting didn’t increase Democrats’ share of the vote.
The researchers found there was a modestly higher turnout rate among 65-yearolds compared to those a year younger in 2014 and 2018, implying that mail voting does increase turnout in off-year elections when interest in the contest is typically lower.
Democrats were more likely to vote by mail than Republicans in 2020 — largely due to Trump polarizing the issue. But that didn’t help them win the election, the Stanford study found, because they were equally less likely to vote early in-person or on Election Day. The 65-year-olds, for example, were 9.5% more likely to vote by mail but 9.5% less likely to vote in person.
Another recent study from Emory University’s Alan Abramowitz found that states that encouraged mail voting in 2020 saw a sharper increase in turnout than those that did not. But, notably, Democrats did not do any better in those higher turnout states.
“Eased absentee voting rules were not the only reason for increased turnout in 2020, but they did make a difference,” Abramowitz wrote in his study, released late last month. However, he added, it did not help President Joe Biden increase his share in any of the states.
Abramowitz noted that Republican-controlled state legislatures are now rushing to curtail mail voting, convinced it cost them the White House.
“These findings suggest that efforts by Republican legislators in a number of states to roll back eased absentee voting rules and make it more difficult for voters to take advantage of absentee voting in the future are unlikely to benefit GOP candidates,” he wrote.