{"id":4965,"date":"2023-04-01T03:28:16","date_gmt":"2023-04-01T03:28:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/?p=4965"},"modified":"2023-04-03T03:32:38","modified_gmt":"2023-04-03T03:32:38","slug":"vaccine-disinformation-preys-on-black-communitys-well-earned-distrust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/?p=4965","title":{"rendered":"Vaccine Disinformation Preys on Black Community\u2019s Well-Earned Distrust"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Ethnic Media Services<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deliberately inaccurate information comes in many forms, much of it about the COVID-19 pandemic. It can create doubt, anger, unrest and fear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It takes a tidbit of truth or a reasonable concern, twisting the truth or magnifying and manipulating any fear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is what happened with a 2021 video that twisted the real history and trauma of the U.S. Public Health Service Syphilis Study at Tuskegee<\/a> to advance an anti-vaccination agenda. Two of the men behind the 2021 debunked video<\/a> were Robert F. Kennedy Jr.<\/a> and David Centner<\/a>. Kennedy is a noted anti-vaccination activist. Centner co-founded a Florida private school that discouraged teachers and students from getting vaccinated against COVID-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The legacy of Tuskegee<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

People who spoke to Richmond Pulse<\/em> last year about COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among the Black community<\/a> repeatedly pointed to the Tuskegee study. They said that while disinformation was a factor in why some Black people were reluctant to get the vaccine, for many, the distrust created by decades of mistreatment by the government and healthcare system was a far bigger reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2021 video brought those things together. NBCNews.com reported that it \u201cpromotes false claims<\/a> that COVID-19 vaccination efforts are part of a larger, sinister experiment on Black communities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cReal facts on the ground can be powerful ways to amplify or get people to believe mis- and disinformation,\u201d said\u00a0misinformation expert Cameron Hickey in a Feb. 8 Ethnic Media Services press briefing<\/a>. \u201cThe African American community was experimented on by the United States government, so that leaves us in a position where that community rightly has some skepticism of now you should trust the government.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Black community has been historically attacked, marginalized and sabotaged,\u201d Nicole S. Grove, editor in chief of the Harvard Kennedy School\u2019s Misinformation Review<\/a>, told the Pulse<\/em> via email. \u201cAs a consequence of things like centuries of undisclosed medical experiments, the subversion of black industry through redlining, and clear histories of law enforcement collaborating with racist vigilante groups like the KKK, they have more cause than most to distrust institutions\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brandi Collins-Dexter of the Harvard Kennedy School\u2019s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy<\/a> told NBC News the video \u201csought to take advantage of the pain felt by Black communities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Collins-Dexter, who is Black, added that the film\u2019s most obvious manipulation tactic was \u201cto liken vaccines to the Tuskegee Study.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen you say \u2018Tuskegee experiment\u2019 to Black people, that\u2019s automatically going to mean something that feels truthful, and that opens the door to a sort of manipulation\u2026\u201d she said. \u201cBut they don\u2019t contextualize what it means.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mis-information \u2018thrives\u2019 where trust is low<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Taking something out of context is a common strategy behind a lot of disinformation and misinformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hickey said that false information and misleading claims are sometimes shared with legitimate news sources to make them seem more believable. Information is also shared that is technically true but \u201clacking critical background details\u201d or perhaps was once true but no longer accurate or relevant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said recognizing the no longer accurate or relevant notion is \u201cparticularly important in the ever-changing world of public health information.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The RFK Jr.-backed film also used another dubious anti-vaccination strategy: co-opting civil rights language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnti-vaccination activists have targeted marginalized groups for years,\u201d NBC News reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMisinformation thrives in low trust environments,\u201d Grove said, \u201cparticularly among people for whom institutional failures in the past have produced scenarios where it makes more sense to believe that the worst is true.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is important to understand why these claims resonate with people, Hickey said. Just throwing facts and data at people and expecting them to immediately admit they were wrong and change their mind won\u2019t work \u2014 with anyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m not sure the solution to this should simply be getting more and better information out there,\u201d Grove added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Addressing the information deficit<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One step in countering disinformation, Hickey said, is considering the \u201cinformation deficit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf a piece of misinformation is spreading and if it\u2019s being amplified,\u201d he said, \u201cthe first thing we want to do is think about, what is the gap, what is the information people don\u2019t have that creates the space for this message to gain traction?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, getting people to move away from bad sources \u201crequires dialogue\u201d and \u201cengaging with someone in a responsible and empathetic way,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He suggested asking questions such as \u201cWhy does this make sense to you?\u201d and \u201cWhat are the fears or concerns that lead you to believe this?\u201d Then, offer to explain your own perspective, what you have learned about the issue and how you came to your conclusions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also important is who is starting these conversations and where they happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s the reason behind the state of California undertaking efforts to overcome COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy<\/a> by having \u201ctrusted messengers\u201d talk to people in the \u201cplaces they tend to be,\u201d says Ashley Clark, press secretary for the state Office of Community Partnerships and Strategic Communications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clark, who is Black, said the state has done vaccine outreach and hosted vaccine clinics in places such as churches, beauty salons, barbershops and farmers markets to make it easier for people to get \u201cresources and information that\u2019s accurate and reliable.\u201d Then, if they want, they can get the shot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Black doctors are among those delivering the information \u201cso that folks can see themselves in the people that are providing them with this key information that they need to be able to get the vaccine and feel comfortable doing that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The state has also worked with gospel artists and pastors through its Shot of Faith program. Clark said churches have \u201cbeen very important\u201d in reaching the Black community<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lower life expectancy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

She also said \u201cthe vaccine is all the more important\u201d for Black people, partly because they are more likely to have preexisting conditions \u201cthat COVID takes advantage of, and it has led to many deaths in the community,\u201d as well as long COVID<\/a>. She pointed to a study that showed that life expectancy had dropped across the state since the start of the pandemic, \u201cbut for Black communities, it was by \u2026 a little bit more than the average.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSeeing that lets you know right there that we need to do what we can to combat misinformation that is preventing folks from getting the vaccine so important to them and their health,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over time, efforts to overcome disinformation, distrust and access issues have showed positive results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI still have a segment of patients that just don\u2019t feel comfortable with getting the vaccine, but thankfully those are fewer and fewer in number,\u201d Dr. Jennifer Miller said in February. Miller, a Black East Bay physician, spoke to the Pulse<\/em> last year about vaccine hesitancy<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many people got vaccinated. Then, the booster shots came out<\/a>, and they didn\u2019t go back for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSeveral  have gotten the primary series, but the uptake of the bivalent booster has been much lower,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said some \u201care not convinced that the bivalent booster is making any worthwhile impact\u201d because people still get sick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Clark said people \u201cneed the vaccine to prevent the more severe outcomes of COVID.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt has been a bit of an uphill climb for the booster,\u201d she said. \u201cFolks are tired of getting shots.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important to make sure that we\u2019re up to date with that booster dose to make sure we\u2019re as protected as possible,\u201d Clark added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This story was produced as part of Ethnic Media Services\u2019\u00a0COVID Myth Busters<\/a>\u00a0series with funding from the California Department of Public Health.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Source: Published without changes from Ethic Media Services<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ethnic Media Services Deliberately inaccurate information comes in many forms, much of it about the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4966,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,33,8],"tags":[66,190,110],"class_list":["post-4965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-outreach","category-health","category-online-newspaper","tag-african-american","tag-myths","tag-vaccination"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4965"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4965\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4967,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4965\/revisions\/4967"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}