Artist behind vaccination campaign says J&J halt should not scare community
BRIDGEPORT — Black artist and activist Crystal Emery remains determined to encourage skeptical Black and Hispanic residents to get inoculated despite news that the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine has been pulled from vaccination efforts.
“The immediate data that has been produced ... will give those who already didn’t want to take the vaccine a legitimate reason to say ‘no,’” Emery acknowledged. “It will make our job harder, but we are not distracted. Because right now these vaccines are our only defense.”
As news spread Tuesday that U.S. health officials urged a pause in the distribution of Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine, Emery and Bridgeport were
“Black and brown people have a unique opportunity in this pandemic to take control of their lives. So if you get the vaccine, you’re taking control.”
Crystal Emery, artist and activist
launching a campaign to convince residents of color to get their shots.
Health officials have suspended use of the vaccine because there have been six cases of those who have been inoculated with it diagnosed with a rare blood-clotting condition. But while Bridgeport announced Tuesday it has discontinued offering the J&J shot at its clinics, the ad campaign will go on.
Dubbed “Our Humanity,” the initiative includes banners of area people getting vaccinated on display outside the city’s firehouses and images on buses and at bus stops “reinforcing ongoing prevention measures and vaccine awareness.”
Emery said while there will be some immediate fallout from the publicity around the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, one of three offered in Connecticut, she argued those who are suspicious should instead come away from Tuesday’s news with a different lesson.
“The fact that the gatekeeper (the U.S. Food and Drug Administration/ the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) — as soon as this type of side effect became apparent, that they stopped it right in the middle of it — it says there are people that are ensuring that these vaccines are going to be safe.
“That is a good demonstration for people who believe there’s some conspiracy or this is some experiment, particularly on people of color,” Emery said. “We are demanding full disclosure. And this is a demonstration of that.”
Black and Hispanic residents in Bridgeport have expressed fears about the inoculations against COVID-19 in part based on prior histories in America of those communities being guinea pigs for the medical community. Leaders of color from City Council members to pastors have been publicly receiving their shots to instill confidence in the community.
And Emery, founder of the New Haven-based nonprofit multimedia production company URU, the Right to Be Inc., decided to use her resources and talent to tackle vaccine skepticism through the images being displayed in Bridgeport.
“I know people identify with people that look like them,” Emery said. “So there’s a young man with his shades getting his vaccine. And he makes getting a vaccine look cool, right? There’s a young woman, she’s getting a vaccine. She’s attractive.”
Rowena White, Bridgeport’s communications director, said Emery reached out to the city and her work complements an existing advertising campaign aimed at communities of color. “It’s one message being amplified throughout the city,” she said.
And for those who are still in doubt about the shots, Emery said look to her. She is quadriplegic, is on a ventilator, and is a diabetic. Emery said she received the Moderna vaccine earlier this year and “had no side effects whatsoever.”
“I have lost a lot of family members to the coronavirus. Look how many people to date we have lost,” Emery said. “And so when you weigh the scales, the vaccines outweigh not doing anything, because if you don’t do anything, not only are we susceptible to die, we are also making those around us even more vulnerable to death than the side effects of any of these vaccines.”
“Black and brown people have a unique opportunity in this pandemic to take control of their lives,” Emery said. “So if you get the vaccine, you’re taking control.”