Those parents understand the wisdom of fully immunizing their children against measles, mumps, chicken pox, and others on the list of contagions that can injure, maim, and, yes, kill.
They know that getting a child vaccinated is an act of love and that the black community, overall, has ensured that our children are immunized against these preventable diseases.
There are also black parents who have yet to embrace those ideals and the medical facts that support them. Motivated by the unchecked disinformation that’s plaguing our world right now, some of those parents have mistakenly asserted that COVID-19 vaccines don’t serve their children’s interests.
The goal of the Get Me Vaxxed campaign, which was started by Black Health, where I am the president and CEO, is to clear up any misconceptions about vaccines that are still out there. Those myths endanger some black children and, by extension, the rest of us. Get Me Vaxxed billboards, bus stop signs, barbershop flyers, social media blasts, and assorted announcements are laser-focused on ensuring that the youngest members of our households are thoroughly vaccinated, and black advocates for community wellness are showing parents a way forward on vaccines.
The black physicians, grassroots activists, pastors, hair stylists, white-collar workers, blue-collar workers, friends, neighbors, and other everyday folks who’ve helped shape and roll out Get Me Vaxxed are chipping away at misinformation. They’re providing clarity and relieving doubt. For example, at the height of COVID-19, blacks who chose not to be vaccinated often tried to tie their reluctance to the infamous “Tuskegee Experiment” of the 1930s. It’s a faulty comparison. What’s officially labeled the “Syphilis Study” at Tuskegee actually involved intentional More specifically, there is a big difference between not giving a health care and encouraging the general public to use health care that is available and easy to get. More specifically, there is a big difference between not giving a health care and encouraging the general public to use health care that is available and easy to get. The COVID vaccine is health care. As a former social worker who squarely prioritizes black wellness and as a longtime community advocate and activist, this is the vaccine gospel that I preach.
Scientists predict that other pandemics will likely follow COVID-19, which disproportionately claimed black lives. We’ve got to be ready for what’s to come.
We must rely on the overwhelming evidence that vaccines are beneficial—and raise a generation of children to accept that same science.
And what’s proven is this: One million 6-month-old through 5-year-old children took either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna COVID vaccines between June 18, 2022, and August 21, 2022. Just 2,000 of those children had adverse reactions to those vaccines. Of those reactions, 98.1 percent were minor, including irritability, crying, fever, rashes, and soreness in the area where the vaccine was injected.
With Get Me Vaxxed, we are focusing on our overriding determination that black children will be protected against a disease that is now endemic, just like the flu is. Many of us get vaccinated against the flu, which was once a pandemic, without giving it much thought.
Get Me Vaxxed itself is part of a broader endeavor to boost black health at a time when black health outcomes generally continue to be concerning and lag behind those of other groups.
Before we changed the name of our 35-year-old organization to Black Health, we’d begun our groundbreaking wellness work as the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS, gaining attention, financial support, and other support from an array of large and small donors and federal health agencies.
Through our innovative initiatives, we were able to win many battles in our fight against HIV. Recognizing the urgency to expand our territory and do other kinds of pioneering work in the health sphere, we are also addressing Black mental health, breast and prostate cancers, diabetes, heart disease, obesity, sickle cell disease, disparities in health care delivery and resources, and the sometimes troublesome encounters between Black patients and health care providers.
Get Me Vaccinated is our latest rallying cry on behalf of blackjack communities. Our kids don’t have big enough voices to speak for themselves. They cannot get themselves to vaccine sites without being led.
So, this is urgent work. We must do We must follow in the footsteps of Blacks who have been vaccinating their children for decades.
