Having mixed feelings is a common experience, including for fathers loving children and adults on the autism spectrum. In our fathers’ support group sponsored by the A. J. Drexel Autism Institute, we have established a safe monthly space to express the mixture of passionate love for our families and our frustrations with the challenges especially during the pandemic. An increasing number of our members have direct experience with COVID-19 in their families and social networks. During our December 19 meeting, different perspectives on the newly released vaccines came to the surface expressed initially by some of our Black fathers.
Vaccine hesitancy is widespread in the U.S. According to the Pew Research Center (http://pewrsr.ch/3n8SYHC), 60% of Americans say they would definitely or probably get a vaccine for the coronavirus. The remaining 40% report they definitely or probably would not get a coronavirus vaccine. About half of this group may decide to get vaccinated when more information becomes available. Hesitancy is however gradually decreasing across ethnic groups since September 2020. (http://bit.ly/38P6dby).
As of December 18, when front-line medical workers began to get the vaccine, (http://cnn.it/3pMob59) nearly 35% of Black Americans were hesitant to get the vaccine compared to 26% of White Americans. Notably, Republicans have a similar rate of hesitancy as Black people though their reasons are political rather than racial. For Black people the impact of the Tuskegee Study, Henrietta Lacks, and Dr. J. Marion Sims are in the historical record of using Black people as guinea pigs (http://on.today.com/3hCESxp) along with the ongoing systemic racism which has surged in public awareness and expression during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
This history of systemic racism in medicine is manifest through infant mortality rates that are twice as high for Black Americans and Indigenous Americans as Whites (http://bit.ly/3b3xOIW). In the catastrophic death toll of COVID 19, Black, Hispanic and Native American cases and deaths far exceed their share of the population, while White rates have stayed disproportionately low. As NBC news has reported (http://nbcnews.to/2LfcHII), Black Americans who contract COVID-19 have been 3.7 times more likely to require hospitalization and 2.8 times more likely to die than whites. A major reason for this disparity is because Black Americans are also more likely to have underlying health conditions and less likely to have health insurance or access to adequate care.
While some members of our group are enthusiastic to get the vaccine and hope for things to get back to what we remember as “normal,” all listened and heard each other out. One father, an ER doctor who has received the vaccination himself, validated that the history of medicine has done no favors for Black people and People of Color. He stressed the need for informed consent, meaning that individuals have to be comfortable with the risks associated with what they are doing. Waving journal articles and statistics in front of skeptical people is neither useful nor effective. Another member expressed still being scared of the possibility of getting COVID. And though the vaccines are mostly good news, he also shared his concerns about the rapid “warp speed” development process in our highly polarized political environment.
All voices on this hot button issue and other issues are welcome in our racially diverse and multifaith group. We believe it is vital to honor everyone’s perspectives. We listen in order to hear and understand as opposed to give advice and fix stuff. We draw strength from each other through our common bond across our differences. Our reach has grown over the 9 months of the pandemic, so we are moving our meeting time to 11:00 AM Eastern in order to accommodate fathers in other time zones. We will also meet for 75 minutes, so we can break up into smaller groups for part of the time in order to have more interaction. We would be glad to have you join us on Saturday, January 16, 2021.
Wishing you and your families peace and health as the new year unfolds,
Robert Naseef & Michael Hannon
From The New Yorker, "Black America Has Reason to Question Authorities," Click to read the article.