Mistrust of a vaccine could imperil immunity

Almost daily, President Donald Trump and leaders worldwide say they are racing to develop a coronavirus vaccine, in perhaps the most urgent mission in the history of medical science. But the repeated assurances of near-miraculous speed are exacerbating a problem that has largely been overlooked and one that public health experts say must be addressed now: persuading people to actually get the shot.

A growing number of polls find so many people saying they would not get a coronavirus vaccine that its potential to shut down the pandemic could be in jeopardy. Distrust of it is particularly pronounced in African American communities, which have been disproportionately devastated by the virus. But even many staunch supporters of immunization say they are wary of this vaccine.

“The bottom line is I have absolutely no faith in the FDA and in the Trump administration,” said Joanne Barnes, a retired fourthgrade teacher from Fairbanks, Alaska, who said she was otherwise always scrupulously up-todate on getting her shots, including those for shingles, flu and pneumonia. “I just feel like there’s a rush to get a vaccine out, so I’m very hesitant.”

Mistrust of vaccines has been on the rise in the U.S. in recent years, a sentiment that resists categorization by political party, educational background or socioeconomic demographics. It has been fanned by a handful of celebrities. But now, anti-vaccine groups are attracting a new type of clientele altogether.

Jackie Schlegel, founder of Texans for Vaccine Choice, which presses for school vaccine exemptions, said that her group’s membership had skyrocketed since April. “Our phones are ringing off the hook with people who are saying, ‘I’ve gotten every vaccine, but I’m not getting this one,’” she said. “‘How do I opt out?’ ” She said she often has to assure callers, “‘They’re not coming to your home to force-vax you.’ ”

Earlier this month, a nationwide task force of 23 epidemiologists and vaccine behavior specialists released a detailed report saying that Operation Warp Speed, the $10 billion public-private partnership that is driving much of the vaccine research, “rests upon the compelling yet unfounded presupposition that ‘if we build it, they will come.’ ”

In fact, wrote the group, led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and the Texas State University anthropology department: “If poorly designed and executed, a COVID-19 vaccination campaign in the U.S. could undermine the increasingly tenuous belief in vaccines and the public health authorities that recommend them — especially among people most at risk of COVID-19 impacts.”

The current political and cultural turbulenceis amplifying the underpinnings of vaccine-skeptic positions. They include the terrible legacy of federal medical experiments on African Americans and other disadvantaged groups; a distrust of Big Pharma; resistance to government mandates ; adherence to homeopathy and other “natural” medicines; and a clutch of apocalyptic beliefs and conspiracy theories .

A poll in May by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that only about half of Americans said they would be willing to get a coronavirus vaccine. One in five said they would refuse and 31 percent were uncertain. A poll in late June by researchers at the University of Miami found that 22 percent of white and Latino respondents and 42 percent of Black respondents said they agreed with this statement: “The coronavirus is being used to force a dangerous and unnecessary vaccine on Americans.”

“The trust issues are just tremendous in the Black community,” said Edith Perry, a member of the Maryland Community Research Advisory Board, which seeks to ensure that the benefits of health research encompass Black and Latino communities.

“The pharmaceutical industry would have to convince some of the young people in Black Lives Matter to get on board,” Perry said. “Throw up your hands and say: ‘I apologize. I know we did it wrong and I need your help to get it right.’ Because we need a vaccine and we need Black and Hispanic participation.”