Can Tyler Perry assuage mistrust among black Americans who are skeptical about the Covid-19 vaccine?
With the pandemic exposing racial disparities in the United States – black people died of Covid-19 at nearly three times the rate of whites, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – health officials have been working to promote vaccinations in communities black, and to combat doubt.
When doctors in Atlanta asked Perry – a popular and prolific actor, director and studio head – to spread the word to black audiences that the vaccine was harmless, he agreed to interview experts on the subject, turning it into a half-hour TV special that aired Thursday night at BET. In the program, he filled Grady Health System doctors with questions about the safety of the vaccine, how it was developed, how it was tested and how it works. At the end of the interview, satisfied with the answers and with the sleeve up, Perry received the punch while the cameras rolled.
“Are you going to give me the injection?” he asked one of the doctors.
“Done,” replied the doctor.
“You finished?” Perry asked, and then raised his thumb. “I didn’t feel that. Here it is. I have the vaccine. Here we go.”
In turning to Perry, they recruited one of the most powerful people in the entertainment industry. He was named one of the 100 most influential people of 2020 by Time magazine, and his net worth, according to Forbes, easily reaches $ 1 billion. Perry, 51, built his fortune by portraying the popularly popular character of Madea, an irreverent and sour-speaking matriarch, on stage and on screen, before retiring in 2019 to focus on his numerous other projects, which include managing its 330-acre Georgia studio.
Having a celebrity stump for vaccines is not new. In 1956, at the request of health officials, Elvis Presley received his polio vaccine in front of press photographers behind the scenes at “The Ed Sullivan Show” to help overcome public suspicions about the vaccine.
And in 1986, author Roald Dahl wrote a letter telling the death of his 7-year-old daughter, Olivia, from measles in 1962, before a reliable vaccine was available, asking parents to vaccinate their children. “It is really almost a crime to allow your child to go without immunization,” wrote Dahl.
Skepticism about the Covid-19 vaccine among blacks has been deeply worrying to health officials. A recent Kaiser Family Foundation study found that one in three blacks was hesitant about the vaccine – making them one of the most reluctant groups to get it, along with Republicans, rural residents and people in their 30s and 40s . A recent CNN analysis found that blacks and Latin Americans were receiving the vaccine at significantly lower rates than whites. Unbalanced rates have been attributed, among other factors, to the lack of access to health care for many blacks, but also to a deep-seated distrust of the medical establishment.
In the BET special, Perry spoke of several infamous episodes in history that led to a lack of faith in the medical institution and the government, including the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, in which doctors deliberately allowed syphilis to progress in black men by suspending their treatment, and the case of Henrietta Lacks, a black woman who died of cervical cancer in 1951, whose cells were used in research without her knowledge or consent.
“We, as blacks, have a healthy hesitation when it comes to vaccines and so on, and even diseases,” he said. He also mentioned doubts about Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration’s initiative to rapidly develop and distribute a vaccine.
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Answers to your vaccine questions
Currently, more than 150 million people – almost half the population – can be vaccinated. But each state makes the final decision about who goes first. The country’s 21 million health workers and three million residents in long-term care facilities were the first to qualify. In mid-January, federal authorities urged all states to open eligibility for everyone aged 65 and over and adults of any age with medical conditions that put them at high risk of becoming seriously ill or dying from Covid-19. Adults in the general population are at the rear of the line. If federal and state health officials can resolve bottlenecks in vaccine distribution, everyone aged 16 and over will be eligible as early as this spring or early summer. The vaccine has not been approved in children, although studies are ongoing. It may take months before a vaccine is available to anyone under the age of 16. Go to your state’s health website for up-to-date information on vaccination policies in your area
You should not have to pay anything out of your pocket to get the vaccine, although insurance information is requested. Even if you do not have insurance, you should receive the vaccine free of charge. Congress passed legislation this spring that prohibits insurers from applying any cost sharing, such as copayment or deductibles. He imposed additional protections, preventing pharmacies, doctors and hospitals from charging patients, including those without insurance. Even so, health experts fear that patients may run into loopholes that leave them vulnerable to unexpected bills. This can happen for those who pay a medical consultation fee with their vaccine, or Americans who have certain types of health coverage that do not fall under the new rules. If you get the vaccine at a doctor’s office or urgent care clinic, talk to them about possible hidden costs. To make sure you don’t get a surprise bill, the best bet is to get your vaccine at a vaccination post in the health department or at a local pharmacy as soon as the vaccines are more widely available.
This must be determined. It is possible that Covid-19 vaccines will become an annual event, as well as the flu vaccine. Or it may be that the benefits of the vaccine last for more than a year. We have to wait and see how durable vaccine protection is. To determine this, the researchers will screen vaccinated people for “innovative cases” – those who fall ill with Covid-19 despite the vaccination. This is a sign of weakened protection and will give researchers clues as to how long the vaccine lasts. They will also monitor the levels of antibodies and T cells in the blood of vaccinated people to determine whether and when a booster injection may be needed. It is conceivable that people need reinforcements every few months, once a year or just every few years. It is just a matter of waiting for the data.
Perry said he didn’t want people to be vaccinated just because he vaccinated her. “What I want to do is give you the information, the facts,” he said. “There is a lot of misinformation out there.”
In the interview, health experts, Dr. Carlos del Rio, executive associate dean of the Emory School of Medicine at the Grady Health System, and Dr. Kimberly D. Manning, professor of medicine there, said that people should be vaccinated not only for you, but to help others. “Start individually and start thinking, ‘Who do I care about, who do I want to protect?’ Said Dr. Manning. “I always say, ‘This is about us'”.
Earlier this week, when Gayle King interviewed Perry on CBS This Morning, she said his vaccination would certainly send a strong message. But she wondered if her alter ego could increase efforts, too.
“Listen, I know Madea is retired,” said King, “but if there was a time for Madea to weigh in on this, it looks like she would have something to say.”
Mr. Perry smiled, bowed his head and responded with the whinny of a Madea voice.
“I’m getting that vaccine drug, I’m getting that vaccine drug,” he sang, and then burst out laughing.
“That’s the point,” said King, “people believe in Madea, because Madea always speaks the truth.”