Turner calls onHoustonians to get vaccine
Mayor Sylvester Turner said he plans to get the COVID-19 vaccine as soon as it becomes available to him and encouraged all Houstonians to get vaccinated to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
Turner acknowledged that Black and Hispanic residents in particular may be wary of taking the vaccine and urged greater community outreach and education to boost vaccination rates among people of color.
“For many people, they’re thinking about the Tuskegee project and howpeople had been hoodwinked,” Turner said at a food distribution event Saturday at a local mosque on Old Spanish Trail. “There’s a lot of mistrust, distrust and disinformation, and so we’re going to really have to carry a very effective message to encourage people to take the vaccine when it becomes available.”
Public health officials worry that people of color may be skeptical and hesitant to take the vaccine when it becomes available, slowing the nation’s fight against a disease that has killed more than a quarter-million people in the U.S. and plunged the nation’s economy into the worst recession in decades.
Black Americans, in particular, have a long history of mistrust in medical trials and the federal government after the Tuskegee Syphilis Study from 1932 to1972. During the study, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told Black men infected with the sexually transmitted disease — most of them poor Southern sharecroppers — that they were getting free health care from the federal government. But in fact, they were participating in a study on untreated syphilis and were never treated with penicillin. The study, which led to more than 100 deaths, was later criticized as amajor ethical violation.
Former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton last week said they will take the new vaccines on camera to convince the public of their safety. Obama told a SiriusXM interviewer Thursday that he understands why African Americans are skeptical of vaccines because of the Tuskegee experiments, but he said vaccines have been vital in the fight against many diseases.
“The fact of the matter is, vaccines arewhywe don’t have polio anymore, the reason why we don’t have a whole bunch of kids dying from measles and smallpox and diseases that used to decimate entire populations and communities,” Obama said in the interview.
Several COVID vaccines are undergoing clinical trials and are awaiting federal approval from the Food and Drug Administration. After receiving authorization, the vaccineswill first be distributed to health care workers and first responders and then the general public.
The vaccine is widely seen as a critical component in the country’s fight against the coronavirus. In Houston, there have been 276,667 confirmed coronavirus cases and 4,105 deaths from the virus.
Turner said through a spokeswoman that he agreeswith federal plans to vaccinate health care workers and first responders before the general public. He plans to get vaccinated when it’s his time.
“The reality is, people of color, Hispanics, African Americans are being disproportionately affected by this coronavirus,” Turner said.