Addressing Justified Vaccine Hesitancy in the Black Community

Cato T Laurencin

doi:10.1007/s40615-021-01025-4

Addressing Justified Vaccine Hesitancy in the Black Community

J Racial Ethn Health Disparities. 2021 Jun;8(3):543-546. doi: 10.1007/s40615-021-01025-4. Epub 2021 Mar 30.

Author

Cato T Laurencin^{1

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Affiliations

¹ Connecticut Convergence Institute for Translation in Regenerative Engineering, University of Connecticut Health Center, 263 Farmington Avenue L7036, Farmington, CT, 06030, USA. [email protected].
² Raymond and Beverly Sackler Center for Biomedical, Biological, Physical and Engineering Sciences, Farmington, CT, USA. [email protected].
³ Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, CT, USA. [email protected].
⁴ Department of Materials Science & Engineering, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA. [email protected].
⁵ Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA. [email protected].
⁶ Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA. [email protected].
⁷ African Studies Institute, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA. [email protected].

Abstract

The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had a terrible and long-lasting impact on the world. As the infection spreads, the projected mortality and economic devastation are unprecedented. Racism and its subsequent effects on social and economic factors have resulted in the virus disproportionally effecting Black people. Given that the virus has hit the Black community the hardest, I am concerned now that vaccine hesitancy may perpetuate the health disparities that we are currently seeing in the numbers of infections and deaths taking place in the Black community.

Keywords: Blacks; COVID-19; Infections; Vaccine; Vaccine Hesitancy; Virus.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

Black or African American / psychology*
Black or African American / statistics & numerical data
COVID-19 / ethnology*
COVID-19 / prevention & control
COVID-19 Vaccines / administration & dosage
Health Status Disparities*
Humans
Racism
Socioeconomic Factors
United States / epidemiology
Vaccination / psychology*

Substances

COVID-19 Vaccines

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Substances

Grants and funding