![]() An out-of-proportion percentage of persons of color who required hospitalization also exceeds their representation. Of that number, the percentage of persons of color whose lives were lost is well out of proportion to their representation in the general population. More than 500,000 Americans lost their lives to COVID-19 by March, 2021. The spread of the coronavirus throughout the United States during the past year has taken a terrible toll on the nation, and communities of color have been particularly impacted by the pandemic. I am a firm believer in the necessity of receiving the COVID-19 vaccination. One person’s views on the COVID-19 vaccination So, I hope that you will think about this carefully, and that you, too, will decide to get the vaccination, because I think it's a good thing for you, a good thing for your family, and will make your life much easier and safer going forward. In fact, I've already gotten vaccinated and I have had very little in the way of reactions to it. So, for me, the idea of getting the vaccine makes perfect sense. ![]() And more importantly, it allows us to more quickly move towards, back to some semblance of normalcy that we had from before. That if by doing so, what will happen is that you will protect yourself and protect your family and your loved ones from contracting the disease. So, in the light of these pros and cons, my decision has been that getting the COVID vaccine is probably the best path to follow. I certainly don't want to put my family through the heartache and the pain of having lost me and having to think about what steps come next. Given this, I know that I myself feel the same way, that I don't want to contract COVID. And I'm sure that they, and their family members who have lost them, would have wished they had access to a vaccine that they could have applied to save their lives. Unfortunately, I am aware of people that have friends who have contracted COVID and passed away. We're still not clear what the longterm impacts of COVID might be, but the worst outcome is that you could contract COVID and die from it. You might recover and not have a problem at all, but you also might recover and have a variety of things, of after effects hit you as a consequence of getting COVID itself. What we know is that when contracting COVID the outcomes aren't always very good. I think the same kind of idea exists with the idea of vaccinations for COVID. This was then used in New England and became a very effective tool for stopping the spread of that disease. And advice was given to them by a enslaved man from West Africa, who shared with them his ideas and the things done in his country in terms of using inoculations to prevent the spread of smallpox. I think all of these factors can make one sort of hesitant about getting the vaccine or getting involved in what is a newer kind of cure.īut it's also important to keep in mind that the idea of vaccines and inoculations really had an important start in New England back in the time of the puritans when they had an outbreak of smallpox. And, of course, there's the story of Henrietta Lacks, whose genes have become a marvel for the scientific community, but she was not able to benefit from it, because she died back in 1951. We're also aware of the experimentation that was done on enslaved African American women before the Civil War. We're all very much aware of the Tuskegee experiment for syphilis, and how that went on for two decades. Historically, relationships with the medical community have not been the best for communities of color. Now, I understand why people might have some hesitancy about getting the shot. So, therefore, the ability to be protected has been diminished. Things like obesity and high blood pressure, but also the fact that access to healthcare, and more importantly, access to places where one can get the shot has been difficult for many people. ![]() This has a lot to do with preexisting issues that exist within that community. We also know that within the communities of color, the percentage of people who have suffered from it in various kinds of ways is much higher than it is in other places. Over the last year, we're aware of the fact that hundreds of thousands of Americans have died as a consequence of COVID. And it has a lot to do with what's gone on in the country over the last year. I myself am in favor of getting an inoculation. And I want to talk to you about the COVID vaccine and getting the COVID inoculation. I am Spencer Crew, and I am a Professor of History at George Mason University. Under Secretary for Science and Research.Under Secretary for Museums and Culture.Assistant Secretary for Communications and External Affairs. ![]()
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