Monday evenings panel.
A trio of Connecticut doctors said the route to addressing Black and brown communities’ Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy and historical distrust in healthcare systems begins with listening to personal experiences.
This conversation happened during a Monday evening panel discussion hosted by the Connecticut Community Outreach Revitalization Program (ConnCORP) and the Beta Tau Health Equity Initiative.
The panel discussed how to heal from and address the history of mistreatment of Black and Brown communities by the medical industry, which has led to a recent increase in vaccine hesitancy and continued distrust of the system.
The discussion was moderated by the host of Connecticut Public Radio’s “Disrupted” program, political scientist Khalilah Brown-Dean. The panel included Yale School of Medicine Chair of Internal Medicine Gary Desir, Regional Director of Diversity & Inclusion at Trinity Health Of New England N. Chineye Anako, Carlton Highsmith, And Quinnipiac University Innovation & Entrepreneurship Chair Fred Mckinney.
Mckinney argued that the previous presidential administration “set the stage” for nationwide vaccine hesitancy. Former President Donald Trump’s lack of pandemic preparation, “bad information” and debunking of scientific studies and facts fueled the historically “tedious relationship” communities have with healthcare, he argued.
“These communities have been undeserved for decades from the mainstream medical industry,” Mckinney said. “We can’t wait for people to come to us to get what they need. We have to go to them.”
The panel agreed that for Black and brown communities to heal and rebuild trust with the medical industry will require trusted leaders in the community to share culturally sensitive facts and information.
The panel sponsors are asking that Connecticut residents share their personal experiences with healthcare to work toward creating a healthcare system that treats all respectfully. People are asked to take this survey on the subjects so organizers will gather information about healthcare trust to proactively address community concerns.
“While Covid-19 itself doesn’t discriminate, we know that our society is built upon discrimination and systemic racism,” Anako said. “Systemic racism is what was actually killing people, not just Covid-19.”
Anako added that addressing hesitancy concerns has no room for generational bias. There is a misconception that history does not impact youth and that youth eligible for the vaccine have not dealt with “ugly episodes” of mistreatment today, she said.
Brown-Dean compared recent discussions about vaccine hesitancy in communities of color to gaslighting. “Often when people talk about hesitancy in Black and brown communities, it is in some way a moral judgment of those communities, and it suggest that they’re irrational,” she said.
Watch the video below for the full discussion.
