3 Ways to Hold Space for Black People With Vaccine Doubts

Encouraging vaccination will take patience, accountability, and empathy — and these strategies

Photo: Los Angeles Times/Getty Images

Few modern medical interventions have ever been discussed as broadly or urgently as the Covid-19 vaccine, and with the rollout underway, conversations across platforms are covering everything from enthusiasm to fears to doubts to hesitancy. Though hesitancy is on the decline, vaccine mistrust still exists, including among Black people around the world.

The science is clear — the approved vaccines are safe and effective — but it will take more than just data to put fears to rest. It’s also important to address these fears at community level. In order to address mistrust some Black people have, it’s important to understand its root causes, and it’s critical to hold space for ourselves to ask questions, find answers, seek accountability, and be free of the scrutiny that takes responsibility off systemic racism and places it at our feet.

Ahead, a few expert perspectives (including my own) about what that space might look like.

“We are not simply untrusting — we remember.”

1. Acknowledge the history of racism within health care — and…