Why African Americans Are Hesitant to Take the COVID 19 Vaccine Essay

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From a historical context, African Americans have faced adverse circumstances as it relates to vaccine administration and acceptance. Much of this reluctance stems from past transgressions on the community which have caused an over apprehensiveness towards vaccines. Aspects such as racial injustice, a lack of trust within white healthcare systems, lack of proper African-American representation, and overall social media perspectives have all contributed to the decline in African American adoption rates.To begin, the reluctance of African Americans hesitation towards taking the COVID-19 vaccine stems partially from a economic perspective. Historically, African-Americans have not participating in the American healthcare system to the same extent as other races. This is partially attributable to lower incomes, education, and wealth. This compounds on itself as African-Americans don’t utilize healthcare programs as much and are therefore less likely to participant in vaccination programs.Currently healthcare costs account for roughly 18% of the gross domestica product of the United States. Nearly 1 out of every 5 dollars is being spent on healthcare related costs in the United States. This percentage has increased every year for the past decade as more baby boomers retire and demand healthcare services. The number of insured has increased dramatically since the passing of the Affordable Care Act as nearly 2.8 million African-Americans are insured. However, the uninsured rate of African-Americans is still 10% which nearly double of the next demographic. In addition to the high uninsured rates, research has shown those African-Americans that are uninsured cite that costs are the overall reason. For African Americans, the average annual cost for health care premiums is almost 20 percent of the average household income—a major cost to bear, when taking into account income inequality and other economic challenges for this demographic (Tuckson, 2020).As such, African-Americans are simply not participating in the healthcare system overall due to costs which has an adverse effect on adoption rates for African-AmericansLow African-American participation rates ensure that African-Americans often don’t see the benefits of using the healthcare system overall. By not using the healthcare system themselves, many are subject to the opinion of others which are typically garners through social media websites and other channels which have high levels of misinformation. As many are uninsured, and others simply neglect treatment due to costs, these individuals form opinions about healthcare not from their own experience. As a result, media perceptions can dictate adoption rates as these individuals rely on partial information to make their vaccination decisions (Carney, 2021).Next, economic considerations are also a reason for the general lack of adoption rates among African-American communities. Although the vaccine is free, many African-American are hesitant to use it practically for economic reasons. Historically, African-American have been subject to policies that overwhelming favorable the white population over the well-being of the African-American community. These policies were heavily centered around education and economic progress and where designed to limit it for African-Americans. It is well documented that slavery sough to limit the ability of African-Americans to read so that they would be extremely limited in their ability to survive of the plantation.

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This policy was designed to create a culture of dependency between the slave and the master. The prevailing notion at the time was if the slave was able to garner an education, they would look for their freedom and thus congregate with one another to overthrow the master. By limiting the slave’s ability to read, they limit their ability to educate themselves and progress through life. This forms the general basis for African-American distrust of certain policies administered by the government overall. Here, the belief is that African-American were not necessarily thought…

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…that hindered African American’s ability to read and write, and policies that have allowed white Americans to destroy black business and even kill them without repercussion, and a system designed to hinder black economic development. We have also touched on the lack of overall economic development and its relation to healthcare costs. Here we discussed how certain African American do not use the healthcare system at all due to being uninsured or simply costs. All of these discussion points culminate into the final and arguable most powerful reason African Americans are hesitant to take the vaccine, and that is Social Media (Barker, 2020).Social media, and the representation of the vaccine has caused an overall reluctance of the African American community to accept the vaccine. Not only have the past transgression noted above contributed, but information provide on social media websites has caused the overall community to be concerned. For one, the quickness for which the vaccine was created has caused African Americans concern as to whether it has been properly tested for African American consumption. Next, the initial lack of data related to side effects has also caused the hesitation of the African American community as it relates to the vaccine. Many are using a “wait and see” approach and deferring consumption of the vaccine until more data specifically for African American’s is gathered.In conclusion, the causes of African American hesitance to take the vaccine are based on a history of policies that have harmed the overall black community under the pretext of helping them. These policies have created a distrust of white America for over 100 years. In addition, economic consideration related to healthcare participation, a lack of trust in the healthcare system, and a lack of African American representation have also contributed the apprehensive nature of the African American….....

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