- Vaccines on the ballot: a QUARTER of Americans now say Covid-19 shots are unsafe and that they know someone who died from one, as 2024 wannabes DeSantis and RFK Jr. take skepticism on the campaign trail Daily Mail
- Many Canadians don’t plan on getting COVID booster, flu shots. Experts say that’s ‘unfortunate’ Yahoo Canada Shine On
- Vaccine trust plunges in U.S., with misinformation drowning out truth: survey PennLive
- ‘Killer Jab?’ 24% of Americans Say They Know Someone Who Died from COVID Vaccine, 42% Would Sue Big Pharma: Poll The Western Journal
- As COVID-19 vaccination rates dwindle, health experts urge the latest booster 13News Now
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Tag Archives: skepticism
Biden’s ‘no’ on F-16s for Ukraine met with skepticism in Pentagon
One senior defense official, who, like some others interviewed for this report, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said that while the Pentagon’s calculus was unlikely to shift soon, there remains a possibility that the discussion could be “M1-ed,” a reference to Biden’s recent commitment of M1 Abrams tanks after administration officials suggested for months that the sophisticated arms would be too complex for Ukraine to maintain.
Another senior defense official acknowledged that there is growing frustration in the Pentagon among those who want to do more to help Ukraine but find their views stymied by others who favor a more cautious approach. This official said that while Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and some of his senior staff were reluctant to approve the Abrams tanks and, weeks before that, the advanced Patriot missile system, Biden eventually did so.
A Pentagon spokesman, Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder, said that the United States and its allies have provided near-term support to “sustain and bolster Ukraine’s existing air capability” and that they are consulting with Ukraine on its long-term needs. The Pentagon said in April that some allies had agreed to provide spare parts for planes that Ukraine already had.
“The war remains fluid and dynamic, so the nature of our support will continue to adapt and evolve as necessary to give Ukraine the training, equipment and capabilities they require to be effective on the battlefield,” Ryder said.
The Ukrainian request for additional fighter jets dates to the war’s opening weeks, nearly one year ago. The country’s air force then had a few dozen Soviet-designed MiG-29 fighters, bolstered by smaller numbers of Su-24, Su-25 and Su-27 jets. Ukrainian pilots have flown them sparingly while facing a complex array of Russian surface-to-air missiles, and some have been shot down.
An assessment of the air war over Ukraine by the Royal United Services Institute in London found that Russian pilots have remained “highly effective and lethal” against their Ukrainian counterparts, thanks to long-range missiles on their aircraft and superior technology overall. Ukrainian air defenses, infused with newer systems from the West, also have improved, prompting the Russian air force to keep its distance from the battlefield, the assessment found. It suggested that even a small number of Western fighter jets could have a significant deterrent effect, even while facing Russian air defenses.
In late January, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, told a gathering of U.S. and European defense leaders in Germany that they must act quickly to supply his government with tanks, long-range missiles, air defense systems and F-16s. Days later, agreements were reached to send the tanks. Other requests, for now, remain elusive.
The Ukrainians want the F-16, in part, because there are more than two dozen nations that fly them, creating a large pool of potential donors, said David Deptula, a retired Air Force lieutenant general. Given the limited number of aircraft and spare parts available with the MiG-29, he said, Ukraine will need to adopt a Western aircraft at some point.
“What Ukraine needs is a game changer, and that’s air power,” said Deptula, the dean of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Power Studies. “We have to stop asking what will happen if we provide air power, and start asking what will happen if we don’t.”
If the Biden administration had begun training experienced Ukrainian pilots how to fly the F-16 last year, they would be using it in combat already, Deptula assessed. He estimated that a fighter pilot with training on other aircraft could learn how to operate the platform within a few months.
Another retired Air Force general, Herbert “Hawk” Carlisle, said he also favors sending F-16s to Ukraine and beginning pilot training, albeit starting with a small number of experienced pilots and assessing their performance before expanding the program.
Carlisle, who chairs the board of directors at the Stimson Center think tank, said Ukraine would also face challenges in maintaining the planes. But “it’s not insurmountable.” To ease such a burden up front, he said, he would recommend sending planes that have recently undergone significant maintenance.
Other analysts are wary of the Biden administration continuing to increase its involvement in the war. Daniel Davis, a retired Army officer and senior fellow with Defense Priorities, said that it is unreasonable to expect that Ukrainian pilots can master the F-16 in just a few months and that the continued threat of Russian air defenses makes it unlikely that the jets are a game changer.
“Even American F-16 pilots would struggle against Russian air defense,” he said. “There’s no reason to think that they’re going to be impervious to that.”
Davis said he does not believe the provision of F-16s alone would prompt Russia to escalate its war, but if Ukraine threatens to take back the Crimean Peninsula that Russia annexed illegally in 2014, Moscow could take drastic measures.
“This is a different set of rules, and if you don’t realize that you’re dealing with a nuclear power, you are putting us in danger,” Davis said. “It’s reckless to the highest degree.”
Biden says diplomacy is still the best way to keep Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, despite Israeli skepticism
“This is a vital security interest to both Israel and the United States, and I would add for the rest of the world as well,” Biden said at a news conference in Jerusalem standing alongside Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid.
He added, “I continue to believe that diplomacy is the best way to achieve this outcome. We will continue to work with Israel to counter other threats from Iran throughout the region, including support for terrorism and ballistic missile program that continues and the proliferation of weapons to terrorist and proxies like Hezbollah.”
The President said he would deliver that message to Saudi leadership when he travels to Saudi Arabia on Friday and said, “With regard to Iran and convincing the Saudis and others that we mean what we say is — we mean what we say.”
Biden has pushed for a revival of the Iran nuclear deal, which former President Donald Trump withdrew the US from in 2018, as he faces increasing pressure from key Middle East allies to produce a plan to contain Iran. Biden’s hosts in Israel oppose a new Iran nuclear deal and the previous version of the deal was unpopular in that nation.
But hopes appear to be fading that the deal will materialize, and the President on Thursday acknowledged the US is “not going to wait forever” for a response from Iranian leadership.
Standing alongside Biden at the news conference, Lapid was dismissive about another nuclear deal as the means to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
“Words will not stop them, Mr. President. Diplomacy will not stop them. The only thing that will stop Iran is knowing that if they continue to develop their nuclear program, the free world will use force. The only way to stop them is to put a credible military threat on the table,” Lapid said.
Biden said in an interview with Israel’s Channel 12 News that aired Wednesday that he would use force “as a last resort” to keep Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, but did not spell out what that meant.
Iran was a main topic of discussion during Biden and Lapid’s bilateral meeting on Thursday, and the two leaders signed a new joint declaration on Thursday aimed at expanding the security relationship between their nations and countering what they described as efforts by Iran to destabilize the region. The President reiterated the US’ “ironclad commitment” to Israel’s security.
The President expressed support for the Abraham Accords, one of Trump’s legacy achievements that normalized relations between Israel and several Arab countries and pursued an expansion of growing Arab-Israeli security and economic ties. He also emphasized the US’ support of expanding Israel’s integration into the region — a major theme of Biden’s four-day trip to the Middle East.
Biden also reiterated his support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict during the news conference.
“Israel must remain an independent, democratic Jewish state, the ultimate guarantee and guarantor of security of the Jewish people not only in Israel but the entire world. I believe that to my core,” Biden said.
He continued, “And the best way to achieve that remains a two-state solution for two people, both of whom have deep and ancient roots in this land living side-by-side in peace and security. Both states fully respecting the equal rights of their citizens, both people enjoying equal measures of freedom and any more that takes us further from that outcome I believe anything is detrimental to the long-term security of Israel.”
The US and Israel on Thursday also launched a new high-level strategic dialogue on technology, which officials say is designed to elevate cooperation between the two nations on pandemic preparedness, climate technology, artificial technology and other trusted technology ecosystems.
The President on Thursday also participated in the first virtual leaders meeting of the “I2U2” group, which also includes Israel, India, and the United Arab Emirates. The focus of Thursday’s meeting was food security as well as advancing clean energy, Biden said ahead of the meeting.
The UAE announced it was investing $2 billion in agricultural parks in India to tackle the food security crisis.
“This unique grouping of countries aims to harness the vibrancy of our societies and entrepreneurial spirit to tackle some of the greatest challenges confronting our world, with a particular focus on joint investments and new initiatives in water, energy, transportation, space, health, and food security,” a joint statement from the leaders of India, Israel, United Arab Emirates and the United States reads.
Biden met with President Isaac Herzog of Israel at his residence and was set to discuss Herzog’s diplomatic efforts to further integrate Israel into the region, officials said.
Herzog presented Biden with the Israeli Presidential Medal of Honor, and Biden said the award was “among the greatest honors of my career.”
The President will then meet with former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The two leaders have a relationship that spans nearly four decades that began when Biden was a junior senator. All the same, it has not always been smooth sailing between the two men. Netanyahu made no secret of his disregard for former President Barack Obama — the feeling, by all accounts, was mutual — and Biden was badly embarrassed when a visit to Israel as vice president in 2010 coincided with an Israeli government announcement approving plans for new settlement homes.
“They, of course, go back many years and know each other well. And we are clear during this visit that the relationship between the United States and Israel is about the countries, our strategic partnership as two states — not about individual leaders,” one official said.
Biden also met with US athletes competing in the Maccabiah Games, an international Jewish and Israeli multi-sport event, and viewed a portion of the opening ceremonies.
This story has been updated with additional developments on Thursday.
Covid vaccine skepticism fueling wider anti-vax sentiment, doctors say
Protestors demonstrate against Covid vaccine mandates outside the New York State Capitol in Albany, New York, on January 5, 2022.
Mike Segar | Reuters
Skepticism toward Covid-19 vaccines could be fueling a “worrisome” rise in broader anti-vax sentiment, doctors have said.
Professor Liam Smeeth, a physician and director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, told CNBC he was concerned that vaccine hesitancy around Covid was “creeping into” sentiment toward other vaccines.
“I’m concerned it’s making people think: ‘oh, well, maybe the measles vaccine isn’t great either, and maybe these other vaccines aren’t great,'” Smeeth said in a phone call. “And we don’t have to see much of a drop in measles vaccine coverage in the U.K. to get measles outbreaks.”
He noted that there had been outbreaks of the disease when vaccination rates dropped in Britain in the 1990s and early 2000s.
In the late 1990s, claims that vaccines caused autism “turned tens of thousands of parents around the world against the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine,” according to the Lancet medical journal. In 2010, the journal retracted a 12-year-old article linking vaccines to autism, and studies have proven vaccines do not cause Autism Spectrum Disorder.
‘Jar full of wasps’
London-based Smeeth said measles vaccination rates only needed to drop a little below 90% for the disease to become a problem.
Measles is a highly contagious, serious viral illness that can lead to complications such as pneumonia and inflammation of the brain. Before widespread use of the measles vaccine, major epidemics broke out approximately every two to three years and the disease caused an estimated 2.6 million deaths each year, according to the WHO.
In the U.K. last year, 90.3% of two-year-olds were vaccinated against measles, mumps and rubella. A year earlier, 90.6% of children of the same age had been given the vaccine.
In the U.S., 90% of children were vaccinated against measles by the age of two in 2019, according to figures from the World Bank, marking a decrease of 2 percentage points from a year earlier. More recent data for the U.S. is not available.
Between 1988 and 1992, that figure fell from 98% to 83% in the U.S., and stayed below 90% for four years. In the U.K., the measles vaccination rate for two-year-olds dipped below 90% in the late 1990s and did not recover until 2011.
“Measles is like a jam jar full of wasps that is raging to get out,” Smeeth warned. “The minute vaccine coverage drops, measles will reappear. So that is a worry, that that [Covid anti-vax sentiment] and that dent in confidence is seeping across into other vaccines. That is a real worry.”
‘Devastating’ changes
Gretchen LaSalle, a physician and clinical assistant professor at Washington State University’s Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine, told CNBC that the politicization of Covid and its vaccines, as well as a lack of understanding of vaccine ingredients and public health, had had “devastating” effects.
In 2020, LaSalle completed the American Academy of Family Physicians Vaccine Science Fellowship. As part of the program, she helped carry out a survey of more than 2,200 people, tracking their attitudes toward immunizations.
Covid vaccines were first administered in December 2020 in the United States.
“In living through the Covid-19 pandemic and seeing the devastating effects on lives and livelihoods with their own eyes, our theory was that people would be reminded of the vital importance of vaccination and that their confidence would increase,” LaSalle told CNBC in an email.
But 20% of respondents told LaSalle’s team they had become less confident in vaccines during the pandemic.
“This decrease is worrisome,” LaSalle said. “For illnesses like measles that require a very high percentage of the population (typically around 95%) to be immune in order to limit the spread, a decrease in vaccination percentages by even 5 to 10% could be devastating.”
LaSalle told CNBC there were several factors contributing toward the public’s loss of faith in vaccines.
“Even before the pandemic, vaccine hesitancy was increasing, and we were seeing the return of deadly diseases around the world,” she said.
“The rise of the internet and social media as outlets where people get their news and information, and the proliferation of misinformation online, has absolutely contributed to the problem.”
She added that because people in the developed world rarely witnessed the devastating effects of vaccine-preventable diseases, for some, the threat of the illnesses doesn’t seem real — and they now fear the vaccination more than the illness itself.
Breakthrough cases
However, Vivek Cherian, a Chicago-based internal medicine physician, told CNBC he hadn’t noticed people’s views of non-Covid vaccines changing throughout the pandemic — although he said he could understand why some people’s views on vaccines in general may have been “tainted.”
“If they got the Covid vaccine and possibly even boosted and still ended up getting a breakthrough infection, their immediate response may be ‘what was the point if I ended up with an infection anyways? What’s the point of getting other vaccines?'” he said in an email.
“When that has come up, I tell my patients that while they may still have got an infection, it could have been much worse if they [were unvaccinated] — and the data overwhelmingly says that your chance of hospitalization and death are significantly reduced when vaccinated and boosted.”
Cherian said it was important to bear in mind that this was not unique to Covid vaccines: no vaccine is 100% effective.
“Just think of the annual influenza vaccine,” he said. “I myself a few years ago got the flu shot and still ended up getting the flu, but that has never (nor should it) deterred me from getting influenza shots every year.”
Phil Valentine, radio host who regretted vaccine skepticism, dies of Covid-19
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A conservative talk radio host who had been a vaccine skeptic until he was hospitalized from Covid-19 has died. He was 61.
Nashville radio station SuperTalk 99.7 WTN confirmed Phil Valentine’s death in a tweet Saturday.
Valentine had been a skeptic of coronavirus vaccines. But after he tested positive for Covid-19, and prior to his hospitalization, he told his listeners to consider, “If I get this Covid thing, do I have a chance of dying from it?” If so, he advised them to get vaccinated. He said he chose not to get vaccinated because he thought he probably wouldn’t die.
After Valentine was moved into a critical care unit, Mark Valentine said his brother regretted that “he wasn’t a more vocal advocate of the vaccination.”
“I know if he were able to tell you this, he would tell you, ’Go get vaccinated. Quit worrying about the politics. Quit worrying about all the conspiracy theories,’” Mark Valentine told The Tennessean in July.
“He regrets not being more adamant about getting the vaccine. Look at the dadgum data,” Mark Valentine said.
Phil Valentine had been a radio personality since he was 20 and became a popular conservative host by railing against a state income tax proposed by Republican then-Gov. Don Sundquist, the Tennessean reported.
The program grew into a nationally syndicated show that aired for 12 years on as many as 100 stations, according to the newspaper. At the end of the run, Valentine signed a three-year deal in 2019 that kept him on 99.7 WTN.
“Phil Valentine was a visionary for the conservative movement, and he made an enormous impact on the lives of many Tennesseans,” U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn tweeted. “My deepest condolences and prayers are with Phil’s wife, Susan, and his family. May they be comforted and surrounded by love during this difficult time.”
In Arkansas, Covid-19 cases surge as state combats vaccine skepticism
At St. Theresa’s Catholic Church in Little Rock’s Southwest side, Oscar Martinez was seizing his chance at a pop-up vaccine clinic in a gymnasium on Saturday afternoon, sponsored by the University of Arkansas of Medical Sciences (UAMS) and the Mexican Consulate — a direct attempt to reach out to the area’s Latino population.
“I have been visiting the region for the last month, so I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity today,” Martinez told CNN.
Officials in the state are pulling out the stops to get people vaccinated. Arkansas not only has one of the lowest vaccine rates in the country — only about a third of eligible people are fully vaccinated — but is facing a troubling uptick in Covid-19 cases – fueled mostly by the emerging Delta variant of the virus.
“There’s no question about it, our level of vaccination is not where we want it to be,” Dr. Jose Romero, the Arkansas Secretary of Health, told CNN. “We have one third of our population fully immunized. But we need to get much higher levels in order to bring this under control.”
The reasons that experts say people aren’t getting the vaccine in Arkansas are varied. They cite pregnant women who are concerned about the impact of the vaccine on them and their unborn children, or people who want to see further FDA approval of the vaccines beyond the current emergency use authorizations. But there are also those who believe in conspiracy theories about the vaccine, the experts said.
Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott Jr. knows that skepticism well. It was something he grappled with himself.
“I’m someone, as a Black male, who has some heart burns about it,” Scott said. “When you think about the Tuskegee Airmen, the HeLa cells, and that disheartening history of the past. I’m also someone who had never taken a flu shot.”
But after losing family members to Covid, Scott said he found it even more important to encourage people to get the vaccine.
“I took the time as a leader to do the research,” he said, “to get to understanding, and to be a leader and demonstrate to the residents of Little Rock that I wouldn’t ask them to do anything that I wasn’t willing to do.”
Experts say their messaging to minority populations faces challenges, citing the state’s Latino populations that often live in more rural areas difficult to reach, have concerns about missing work, or face their own doubts about the vaccine.
Dr. Gloria Richard-Davis, a doctor at UAMS, focuses her work on reaching out to those groups. It’s about making the vaccine accessible within the community, she said.
“A lot of celebrities are coming out saying get the vaccine, the average person is not listening to them,” she said. “So, we’re trying to understand who the everyday influences are for our community and the community health workers are part of that because they live and breathe.”
Aside from community members helping to share accurate information, the state government is trying to do its part. Governor Asa Hutchinson is in the midst of a tour around Arkansas hosting town halls where he takes questions about the vaccine, and the state health department has released public service announcements featuring former vaccine skeptics speaking about their change of perspective.
Another is ensuring people are able to get time off work to get their vaccines — a major concern among communities of color, Richard-Davis said.
“We’re working with employers to try and get them to allow that time for vaccination or if someone happens to have adverse events that they don’t feel like going into work the next day, that there’s some flexibility that there’s some leeway,” Richard-Davis said.
When it comes to the FDA’s approval of the current vaccines beyond emergency use authorization, Dr. Robert Hopkins — a UAMS doctor who also serves as the chair of the National Vaccine Advisory Committee — said that he is hopeful it could come “fairly soon.”
“I know that there’s been regular communication between the Pfizer, the Moderna, and the Johnson and Johnson folks, and the FDA,” he told CNN. “I think that that would help at least with a part of our population that’s been hesitant, to know that this vaccine has full approval.”
The outreach seems to be working. At St. Theresa’s, Minerva Mendoza brought her 13-year-old daughter Mary Lara to get her vaccine.
“My position on the vaccine is that we can’t just sit around and wait to get sick and then regret not getting inoculated,” she told CNN. “Right now, it’s about everybody pitching in and overcoming any fears about the vaccine so we can pull ourselves out of this pandemic.”
Trump touts Covid-19 vaccine safety amid skepticism from Republicans
Former President Donald Trump said in an interview Tuesday that he would recommend that everyone get Covid-19 vaccine shots — a significant discourse shift as Republicans express skepticism about getting them.
“I would recommend it, and I would recommend it to a lot of people that don’t want to get it, and a lot of those people voted for me, frankly,” Trump said on Fox News, praising what he called “a great vaccine.”
“But you know, again, we have our freedoms, and we have to live by that, and I agree with that also,” he added.
Recent polls suggest that the largest group of Americans either hesitant about the Covid-19 vaccines or outright opposed to them are Republicans, and efforts to reach them are only in their infancy. A recent NPR/PBS/Marist poll found that 47 percent of Trump voters and 41 percent of Republicans said they will not get the vaccines when they are made available.
Trump’s remarks came after it was revealed this month that he and former first lady Melania Trump were quietly vaccinated at the White House in January. It is not clear which vaccine they received, as it was not disclosed at the time by the Trump White House. The official White House photographer also was not present to document the event.
Trump, whose administration was criticized for its vaccine rollout plan, boasted during a speech in February at the Conservative Political Action Conference that he pushed officials to get the vaccines developed under Operation Warp Speed. He also urged attendees to get vaccinated, even though he did not disclose that he had been.
Four of Trump’s predecessors, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, have received their shots in public, along with each of their wives.
Vaccine skepticism lurks in town famous for syphilis study
TUSKEGEE, Ala. (AP) — Lucenia Dunn spent the early days of the coronavirus pandemic encouraging people to wear masks and keep a safe distance from each other in Tuskegee, a mostly Black city where the government once used unsuspecting African American men as guinea pigs in a study of a sexually transmitted disease.
Now, the onetime mayor of the town immortalized as the home of the infamous “Tuskegee syphilis study” is wary of getting inoculated against COVID-19. Among other things, she’s suspicious of the government promoting a vaccine that was developed in record time when it can’t seem to conduct adequate virus testing or consistently provide quality rural health care.
“I’m not doing this vaccine right now. That doesn’t mean I’m never going to do it. But I know enough to withhold getting it until we see all that is involved,” said Dunn, who is Black.
The coronavirus immunization campaign is off to a shaky start in Tuskegee and other parts of Macon County. Area leaders point to a resistance among residents spurred by a distrust of government promises and decades of failed health programs. Many people in this city of 8,500 have relatives who were subjected to unethical government experimentation during the syphilis study.
“It does have an impact on decisions. Being in this community, growing up in this community, I would be very untruthful if I didn’t say that,” said Frank Lee, emergency management director in Macon County. Lee is Black.
Health experts have stressed both the vaccines’ safety and efficacy. They have noted that while the vaccines were developed with record-breaking speed, they were based on decades of prior research. Vaccines used in the U.S. have shown no signs of serious side effects in studies of tens of thousands of people. And with more than 26 million vaccinations administered in the U.S. alone so far, no red flags have been reported.
Tuskegee is not a complete outlier. A recent survey conducted by the communications firm Edelman revealed that as of November, only 59% of people in the U.S. were willing to get vaccinated within a year with just 33% happy to do so as soon as possible.
But skepticism seems to run deeper here.
When Alabama and the rest of the South were still segregated by race, government medical workers starting in 1932 withheld treatment for unsuspecting men infected with syphilis in Tuskegee and surrounding Macon County so physicians could track the disease. The study, which involved about 600 men, ended in 1972 only after it was revealed by The Associated Press.
A lawsuit filed on behalf of the men by Black Tuskegee attorney Fred Gray resulted in a $9 million settlement, and then-President Bill Clinton formally apologized on behalf of the U.S. government in 1997. But the damage left a legacy of distrust that extends far beyond Tuskegee: A December survey showed 40% of Black people nationwide said they wouldn’t get the coronavirus vaccine. Such hesitancy is more entrenched than among white people, even though Black Americans have been hit disproportionately hard by the virus.
The Chicago-based Black nationalist group Nation of Islam is warning away members nationwide with an online presentation titled “Beyond Tuskegee: Why Black People Must Not Take The Experimental COVID-19 Vaccine.”
Gray, now 90 and still practicing law in Tuskegee, rejects such comparisons. The syphilis study and the COVID-19 vaccine are completely different, he said. He believes that enough that he himself has gotten the vaccine and is publicly encouraging others to do the same.
Georgette Moon is on a similar mission. Hoping to both protect herself and encourage skittish friends, the former city council member recently bared an arm and let a public health nurse immunize her. Now, Moon said, if only more fellow Black residents could overcome their lingering fears and get the vaccine.
“The study is a huge factor,” Moon said. “I’ve had very qualified, well-educated people tell me they are not going to take it right now.”
The Macon County health department, which is administering two-step Moderna vaccines in its modern building near downtown, could perform as many as 160 immunizations a day, officials said. But a maximum of 140 people received the vaccine on any single date during the first six days of appointments, with a total of 527 people immunized during the period. Health care workers, emergency responders and long-term care residents are currently eligible for shots in Alabama, along with people 75 and older.
There are some signs of hope. State statistics show a slow uptick in the number of people coming in for vaccinations, and word seems to be filtering through the community that it’s OK to be vaccinated.
Down the street from the county clinic, the Veterans Affairs hospital in Tuskegee is vaccinating veterans 65 and older. While only 40% of the VA workers in the area have been vaccinated, officials said, more people are agreeing to the shots than during the initial wave.
“They know people who have had the vaccine, they hear more about it, they become more comfortable with it,” said Dr. April Truett, an infectious disease physician at the hospital.
The Rev. John Curry Jr. said he and his wife took the shots after the health department said they could get appointments without a long wait. The pastor of the oldest Black church in town, Curry said he is encouraging congregants to get the vaccine.
Yet he said he also understands the power of lingering distrust in a town that will forever be linked to the syphilis study, one of the most reviled episodes of U.S. public health history.
“It’s a blemish on Tuskegee,” he said. “It hangs on the minds of people.”