Black Woman Among The Scientists That Developed The COVID-19 Vaccine – Fausi.
Dr. Anthony Fausi is urging Black Americans hesitant to take the Covid-19 vaccine to trust the process, part of it because one of the scientists at the forefront of the vaccine’s development is a Black woman.
The top infectious disease expert, speaking at an event on Tuesday, said it was important to acknowledge the US history of racism in medical research and understand how that has fostered mistrust among some Black people.
But Fausi stressed that the upcoming Covid-19 vaccines are safe and effective, adding that African American scientists have been involved in their development.
”The very vaccine that’s one of the two that has absolutely exquisite levels; 94 to 95 percent efficacy against clinical disease and almost 100 percent efficacy against serious disease that are shown to be clearly safe. That vaccine was actually developed in my institute’s vaccine research center by a team of scientists led by Dr. Barney Graham and his close colleague, Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett, or Kizzy Corbett”, Fausi said.
Corbett is the National Institute of Health’s lead scientist for Coronavirus vaccine research. She is part of a team that worked with the biotechnology company Moderna on one of the two mRNA vaccines expected to receive emergency use authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration this month. Pfizer’s vaccine candidate is the other one.
”So, the first thing you might want to say to my African American brothers and sisters is that the vaccine that you are going to be taking was developed by an African American woman”, Fausi added, ”And that is just a fact”.
Black Americans and a couple of other people have been disproportionately affected by Covid-19, increasing the urgency among health experts and community leaders to build confidence and trust in the vaccine. But skepticism among the Black Americans remains high.
According to Corbett, rebuilding trust in medical institutions will take time, and that is something that health experts have to accept.
”I would say to people who are vaccine-hesitant that you’ve earned the right to ask the questions that you have around these vaccines and this vaccine development process”, she said.
For her part, Corbett said she is trying to help earn back that trust. She has been outspoken on the role systemic racism has played in the pandemic, and has criticized the Trump administration for a lack of diversity on its corona-virus task force.
