Prayer and science led me to the vaccine

Opinion polls show that African Americans have the greatest hesitation of any group about the Covid vaccine. These reserves are rooted in centuries of ill-treatment, as well as illegal and unethical experimentation by the country’s medical establishment. In the 19th century, James Marion Sims, the man considered the father of modern gynecology, conducted many experiments on enslaved women without anesthesia. The notorious “Tuskegee study of untreated syphilis in black men” continued into the 1970s.

Health outcomes are also not encouraging. African Americans have twice the white infant mortality rate. African American women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than their white counterparts. The breast cancer mortality rate is 42% higher for black women than for white women. My father died when I was just 16, largely thanks to diagnosed and abused hypertension. Disturbing news about disparate treatments at American health centers surfaced during the pandemic.

Unsubstantiated rumors about an attempt to use the vaccine to exterminate the black community have gained acceptance among my African-American colleagues. I understand the general distrust, but the painful truth is that black people need the vaccine more than anyone. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say we are almost three times more likely to die from Covid than whites.

As a minister, I witnessed these deaths personally. I buried many friends and church members. At the height of the pandemic, he regularly received reports of two or three deaths a day. I have struggled to comfort and advise your survivors, most of whom could not be in the same room with their loved ones when they took their last breath. Over the weekend, I lost an old friend and colleague to the virus. But I believe that the God who brought us through slavery, Jim Crow, the Spanish flu and the lynching can guide us through this crisis as well.

As a father, grandfather, pastor and community leader, I realized the importance of understanding the vaccine. That meant getting the facts in advance from the most qualified scientists and doctors. A panel discussion I organized in early January with several of the country’s leading infectious disease specialists – including Anthony Fauci, Kizzmekia Corbett and Yale professor of medicine Onyema Ogbuagu – provided a complete description of the vaccine development process. Particularly useful were the details provided by Dr. Corbett, a young black woman and key scientist behind the development of Moderna’s new mRNA vaccine.

I received valuable advice from my longtime doctor, a black woman and a member of my church who herself received the vaccine. Believing in the multiplicity of advice, I also spoke with several infectious disease specialists here in the Dallas area, a metropolis that is home to many world-renowned health centers.

Eventually, it all came down to common sense. I am a 63-year-old black man, slightly overweight and with a latent health problem. The vaccine has been shown to decrease the chances of people like me getting the virus. So far, the side effects of the vaccine have been minimal or nonexistent. It is true that no one knows anything about the potential long-term side effects. But here’s what we know: the virus has killed more than 500,000 people in this country alone, but the vaccine has not yet killed a single person. In addition, there is much information about persistent debilitating symptoms among those who survive the virus.

I don’t consider myself an advocate of vaccination. This is a personal decision. But you must not make a critically important personal decision without any information – or with little information. At a time when the line between fact and fiction is gradually eroding, it has never been more important to prevent people from being influenced by the misinformation or the innumerable falsehoods that spread over the Internet.

Here’s my unsolicited advice: Do your own research. To pray. Consult several reliable sources, from your personal physician to federal agencies like the CDC. Your sincere search for the truth can save your life – and your loved ones.

Bishop Jakes is a senior pastor at Potter’s House, a 30,000-member church based in Dallas.