By Daniel Smith
The COVID-19 pandemic, which started in China, swept through the world and has since been the major concern of world governments, especially the USA. As the year 2021 starred the world in the face, people grew wearier of the disease as it ran into its second year.
Medical scientists who have been at work since the beginning of the pandemic were more pumped for results. The resolve to find a way to contain this deadly disease birthed the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. So far, it is said to have up to 94.1% efficacy, which is believed to be enough curative measure for a disease as deadly as the coronavirus. While this would ordinarily come off as great news for everyone, it is not really the case with many people who with great skepticism are in doubt of the motives behind the vaccine and its after-effects.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, Haitian-Americans have been badly affected, and the possibility of a vaccine would have made them heave a sigh of relief if all things were equal. The truth is that history has taught this group of minority Black Americans not to totally trust white people, especially those in the position of power.
Historical events like the Tuskegee experiments where black people were used as lab rats to test vaccines and other medical experiments are part of the reasons why these people may not trust the white government.
Many jokes are flying across the internet concerning the possible after-effects of the coronavirus vaccine. The real motives of these jokes go beyond humor, says Villardy Alcé, a Haitian-American standup comedian. “Behind every joke, there’s a truth… One of the best ways to share the truth is to code it in humor. You can talk about the most grotesque, the most awful things as long as you code it,” he said.
Many Haitian-Americans will rather take local herbs than take the covid-19 vaccine, and the fact that this is the case with many minority groups in America, poses a lot of threats to the government’s success in curbing this disease. There is a great deal of mistrust amongst these people, and the fact that there are historical proofs to back their claims makes it even harder to nuance their askance. Leaders of the Haitian-American communities have made efforts at calming the nerves of members of their community as to the safety of the vaccine. Still, it seems as though the fears of these communities are more than the level of trust they have for leaders, even when the leaders are their compatriots.
The Other Truths about the Mistrust of Haitian-Americans for the New Covid-19 Vaccine
While medical racism stands at the top of the reason why Haitian-Americans remain skeptical about embracing the new vaccine, there are other reasons behind their askance. Top of these other reasons is the early rumors and ideas about the advent of the virus. Recall that many people were made to believe that the virus emanated from the erection of 5G cell towers. Since these towers still exist, no vaccine, according to this group of people, can be effective against the virus.
Another group of people believes that the virus is a ploy by world ‘change-makers’ like the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation to inject Americans with microchips. Others believe Elon Musk to be the brain behind the scheme. These theories have been so peddled that Bill Gates himself was forced to make a statement in December 2020; “it doesn’t help that there are false conspiracy theories about vaccines, including some that involve Melinda and I…,” he said. Again, there exist, the logical ones whose skepticism comes from the belief that the vaccine is a bit rushed. With more data as to the efficacy of the vaccine and its side effects, this set of people may one day make themselves available to take the vaccine.
Note that Haitians are mostly religious and spiritual people who believe that taking a vaccine comes with the possibility of losing one’s soul. Dr. Jonas Attilus, an internal medicine resident at Boston University Medical Center, opines that there is the belief that one will get the 666 marks of the beast when injected with the vaccine. Of course, none of these claims are true.
What could go wrong?
The real question behind the many doubts about the coronavirus vaccine is, ‘what could go wrong when one takes it?’ Even though Dr. Yves Duroseau, a Haitian-American physician, was the first American physician to take the vaccine, he isn’t enough proof to the Haitian-American community about the safety of the vaccine. Instead, it raises more questions in the minds of the suspicious ones; why him? Whatever the questions or problems may be, the fact remains that Dr. Duroseau and many of those who first took the vaccine have remained healthy, without any adverse effect like the ones which Twitter pundits projected.
Among the over 1 million Americans that have taken the vaccine, only fewer than ten people have shown signs of adverse allergic reactions. While the number of those showing the sign of this allergic reactions may seem small or impressive, it is just enough to discourage Haitian-American naysayers from taking the vaccine. The action of front-liners like Dr. Yves and others who took the vaccine publicly to encourage reluctant communities, doesn’t seem to have done much to that effect. The fears remain prominent amongst Haitian-Americans and other minority communities, but asides from pains on the injection site, headache, muscle pain, and fatigue, experts confirm and/or believe that there’s nothing else to be afraid of.