In Minority Communities, Doctors Are Changing Minds About Vaccination
Many Black and Hispanic Americans mistrust government officials, and instead have turned to physicians they have long known.
Denese Rankin, left, and her daughter, Tyra Lindsey, of Castleberry, Ala., had doubts about the Covid-19 vaccines until Ms. Rankin’s niece, Dr. Zanthia Wiley, came home for a chat.Credit.Lynsey Weatherspoon for The New York Times
Published Dec. 31, 2020Updated Jan. 1, 2021
Like many Black and rural Americans, Denese Rankin, a 55-year-old retired bookkeeper and receptionist in Castleberry, Ala., did not want the Covid-19 vaccine.
Ms. Rankin worried about side effects she had seen stories on social media about people developing Bell’s palsy, for example, after they were vaccinated. She thought the vaccines had come about too quickly to be safe. And she worried that the vaccinations might turn out to be another example in the government’s long history of medical experimentation on B