Fauci talks shots with Houston-area pastor

As chaos and violence erupted in the nation’s Capitol on Wednesday afternoon, the country’s leading disease expert livestreamed with the pastor of a Houston-area church.

Dr. Anthony Fauci’s decision to speak to members of the Luke Church, a predominantly Black congregation in the Humble area, cameas faith leaders continue to push for congregants to receive vaccines for COVID-19.

But not all have been enthusiastic about doing so, with many citing the historic mistreatment, abuse or exploitation of African Americans under the guise of medical treatment.

“We need to acknowledge the concern and hesitation,” Fauci said in a roughly 20-minute interview with the church’s pastor. “The slight and mistreatment of the African American community historically … is real in history, and we have to recognize that it occurred and emphasize that .”

Timothy Sloan, pastor of the Luke Church, said theinterview came together on a whim: He’d sent an email to Fauci’s office a few weeks prior, and he was surprised that Fauci agreed to sit down with him.

Like other Black pastors, Sloan noted the role of things such as the Tuskegee Study as reasons why many Black people are apprehensive about getting vaccinated. In that 40-year experiment that started in 1932, Black men in Alabama with syphilis were given placebos instead of treatment orwere experimented on in other ways without their consent.

“We are all filtering this through the lens of our historical mistrust,” Sloan said. “And for many of us who weren’t around at the time, we’ve heard the oral stories that have been passed down. So there is a level of distrust.”

Faith leaders have in recent weeks taken a proactive stance on vaccinations, believing that the trust they generally enjoy among the public will be valuable in combating the pandemic.

Last month, United-Methodist Church leaders in Texas released a video urging congregants to get vaccinated.

“Skepticism about getting vaccinated is of deep concern to me,” the Rev. Scott Jones, bishop of the Texas Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, said at the time. “And every leader with any credibility in any part of our community needs to use his or her voice and platform to encourage everyone to get vaccinated.”

A November survey by Pew Research showed that half of white evangelicals and 59 percent of Black Protestants said they definitely or probably would not get a vaccine. Roughly one-third of Catholics and white nonevangelicals said the same.