'Trauma after trauma': Scars from Flint's water crisis shake city's faith in Covid vaccine
Erin Einhorn
January 12, 2021, 8:47 AM
DETROIT — In the weeks since the arrival of the first Covid-19 vaccines, the Rev. Dr. Sarah Bailey has been fielding calls from friends and neighbors in Flint.
Callers ask about the new vaccines' side effects, said Bailey, who runs a faith-based health awareness organization called Bridges Into the Future.
They wonder whether the messenger RNA — or mRNA — vaccines can change a person's DNA, she said.
"They say, 'Ooh, can I catch Covid from it?'"
Bailey, an elder at Flint’s Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship International and the vice chair of a local network called Community-Based Organization Partners, reassures them. The vaccine won't give them the virus and it won't affect their DNA, she tells them, just as all major medical authorities have said based on extensive testing. She walks them through the science behind the vaccines.