Black Americans also are less likely to get vaccinated than white Americans. Of the Black adults who say they won’t take the vaccine, half are worried they may get COVID-19 from it, according to a report by the Kaiser COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor.
“If (patients) are not in an extended facility, they’re at home. Their families are going to be of the same ethnicity and their family members are on the front lines,” Baker said. “We need to start from the front lines to make things equitable."
Baker said more education and transparency is needed to overcome rational distrust in the medical system after centuries of structural racism, especially after a CDC study last week found that more than half of nursing home staff declined to get vaccinated against COVID-19 when they were offered a shot.