How has the clinical trials created vaccine hesitancy amongst majorities and minorities?
For the covid vaccine specifically, there’s one thing that stands clear when it comes to efficacy and effectiveness: the clinical trials targeted the same groups. The distributions amongst who were the first to get the covid vaccine were very similar. Let’s back up for a minute. You may be asking, “what do these companies mean when they say they’re 95% effective at preventing severe infection?” The definition of efficacy, according to Medical News Today, is “the percentage reduction in disease in a group of people who got the vaccine during the clinical trial.” On the other hand, effectiveness, also according to Medical News Today, is “how well a vaccine works when given to people in the community outside of clinical trials.”
During the clinical trials, the majority of people who participated were the “majority” meaning there were far less minority groups. Majority of the people who got the vaccine or the placebo were of adult age and of white race. Upon doing research, I tried finding patient demographics for all of the vaccinators- Moderna, Pfizer, Johnson and Johnson, and Astrazeneca- but I could only find information for Moderna. According to Moderna’s clinical trials, the patient demographics stand as: “20.5% Hispanic, 79.2% White, 10.2% African American, 4.6% Asian … 2.1% Multiracial.” Roughly a quarter of the participants were seniors, and ¾ of the participants were 18–64 yrs old. The sex distribution for Moderna’s clinical trial was split about half and half (47% female and 53% male). — https://www.modernatx.com/covid19vaccine-eua/providers/clinical-trial-data
Though all four companies say that our vaccine is x% effective at preventing serious disease in all groups, one may be confused and say how can the vaccine be effective against all groups when only a few of our group (minorities for example) participated in the clinical trials? I would agree with you. In order to have accurate results, we need to have more participants in the study to have a more accurate representation of each group. You may be asking, why can’t minorities just sign up and participate in the clinical trials? Well, it’s easier said than done. For the last 150 years, when racial inequality was a much bigger issue, African Americans were used as participants against their will, or were not told proper information, for both social and scientific purposes to deface them. One such example is the Tuskegee Syphilis experiment. These people were harmed for years on end, and not once were they told they had become ill with syphilis. If you were in their shoes, would you still want to participate in these clinical studies? I wouldn’t want to either. They’ve changed to thinking along the lines of “what’s the point? I’ll just be harmed by doctors again. Why should I get the vaccine if it’s just going to harm me? I’m better off not getting the vaccine and staying safe.” It’s not easy to undo that pain and suffering. The vaccine may have worked for the minorities in the clinical group, but it’s not conclusive enough to speak for the rest of the communities.
According to CBS News, Sunday (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4W21-nfMMow), another problem is that the vaccines are not reaching these underserved populations. Very few blacks and latinos have been vaccinated compared to white people. In the video, the interviewee said that once she got the vaccine, and others saw that she was fine, it encouraged others to get the Covid vaccine. She said most of them were fearful and doubtful of the vaccine before they got it.
Even now, we see that the same distribution of people are getting the Covid vaccine. If we want to see more inclusiveness with the clinical trials, it’s important for healthcare workers and scientists have to change their perspective and have to understand where minorities are coming from.
