Vaccine rates low amid Black Floridians
Groups try to address mistrust by talking with ‘trusted messengers’
COVID-19 vaccination rates still lag in Black communities throughout Florida as the delta variant brings cases to new heights, a Kaiser Family Foundation study found last week.
As of Aug. 2, 28% of Black Florida residents had received at least one dose of the vaccine compared to 52% of white Florida residents. About 9% of vaccinations go to Black people even though they make up 15% of the population and 15% of cases.
Low vaccination rates were already an issue in the Black community before COVID-19, alongside a lack of access to quality medical care and a general distrust of the medical community, said Dr. Bernard Ashby, Florida state lead for the Committee to Protect Health Care and a Miami cardiologist.
“Black folks just get worse care, and I see it all the time,” Ashby said.
Without providing greater access to care and including trusted community leaders, vaccination campaigns will widen the divide between Black Americans and the health care community when this effort could be an opportunity to bridge the gap, he added.
‘‘I’ve talked to Black folks in the community that say, ‘They never served us before, never really cared, but now, all of a sudden, they’re pushing the vaccine down our throats.’ They see the hypocrisy of it all,’’ Ashby said. “[Then] they are ridiculed for not getting the vaccination and even getting punished for it, which is compounding this inequity that already exists.”
Black people die from COVID19 at disproportionately high rates in Florida’s metropolitan cities, including Orlando. A June study
found that Black patients may be more likely to die from COVID-19 because of the poorer quality of hospitals in predominantly Black areas. The study took pre-existing conditions into account. Black Americans are also consistently undertreated for pain by doctors.
Outreach groups attempt to address mistrust by reaching out to “trusted messengers” to promote vaccines, said Jasmine Burney-Clark, founder of Equal Ground Education Fund, a Blackled voting rights organization that pivoted to promoting vaccinations in Volusia, Pinellas, Seminole and Orange counties in March. Trusted messengers are community leaders, like pastors, who have steered residents in the right direction before, Burney-Clark said.
“There was and has always been mistrust in government because governments are such an official authority. Folks haven’t been able to see themselves represented in them,” Burney-Clark said.
A Wednesday news briefing held by the ”We Can Do This” nationwide vaccination education campaign also emphasized the importance of finding trusted messengers.
Yet even with the support of trusted messengers, people of color are still playing catchup. At the beginning of Florida’s vaccine rollout, vaccination sites were more likely to be in white and wealthy communities than in poor communities with a larger percentage of people of color.
Trusted messengers are also unlikely to be physicians. Only 5.5% of Florida’s physicians were Black as of 2020, according to the Florida Department of Health.
Ashby said he would love to be involved in government outreach efforts as a community leader and Black physician, but he has not been consulted nor has he been given resources to help him support his community.
Dr. Sarah St. Louis, an obstetrician-gynecologist in Orlando and president of the Central Florida Medical Society, said she primarily sees elderly white patients but had the opportunity to talk to a Black patient last week who was hesitant about getting the vaccine.
“She gave me a phone call later on that week to let me know that after speaking with me she did get her vaccine, and she also encouraged her family members that live with her to receive the vaccine,” St. Louis said. “That could have been an instance of just talking to a provider that was of the same skin color.”