A response to "black and vaxxed"
Tamaan K. Osbourne-Roberts, MD
First things first: the history of injustices committed against African-Americans by the American healthcare system is well-documented, extensive, and appalling. From the fact that many of the first U.S. medical schools were endowed by slave traders, to the fact that those same medical schools often pillaged slave gravesites for cadavers and “specimens”; from the horrors of the Tuskegee syphilis “experiments,” to the theft of Henrietta Lacks’ cells which created lifesaving treatments most of her descendants could never afford; from racially biased data algorithms that single out millions of African-Americans as needing less care, to the modern crisis of African-American maternal mortality... distrust of the healthcare system by African-Americans is deep and well-founded, based both on historical precedent and ongoing bias and discrimination.
However, to conflate this history of systemic racism and abuse with Colorado Senate Bill 163, as Theo E. J. Wilson recently does in his op-ed ‘Black and Vaxxed — a complicated history clashes with the future of Senate Bill 163,’ is at best ill-informed, and at worst, potentially harmful to the very community about whom Mr. Wilson professes to care so deeply.
Before I go any further, a little bit about me... I’m a Black, bilingual, full-time practicing family physician who has dedicated his entire clinical career to caring for underserved communities of color. I’m a local and national policy expert, having recently served as chief medical officer for Colorado Medicaid, and also having served as the first Black president of both the Colorado Medical Society and the Colorado Academy of Family Physicians. I sit on multiple national advisory councils for nutrition, health systems, and public health, and have co-authored multiple pieces of national policy on issues of health equity.
When it comes to the health of the African-American community, in many different ways, I’ve been (and still am) “in the trenches.”
And from my view in the trenches, it seems clear to me that Mr. Wilson’s recent piece completely misses the target in properly representing the health needs of the African-American community, the science of vaccinations, and the substance of Senate Bill 163.
I won’t rehash in detail how claims against vaccination utterly strain scientific credulity...how virtually every scientific and medical professional society, as well as the overwhelming majority of peer-reviewed researchers, support vaccination as a safe and effective public health intervention... how the supposedly landmark study linking the MMR vaccine to autism was retracted by the journal that published it, and the authoring physician’s license revoked over ethical concerns.
What I will point out is that, among legitimate concerns for vaccine safety, it must be stressed that all medical interventions, even interventions as simple as taking aspirin, come with a risk of serious side effects...and that serious vaccine side effects are rare. As a comparison, I doubt that Mr. Wilson would question the physics of flight, the reliance pilots have on such science, or the wide availability of commercial airline services, simply due to the fact that plane crashes inevitably occur, or because multi-billion dollar companies are involved in the construction of planes.
I will also point out that Mr. Wilson’s concerns are not simply mistaken, but potentially harmful to African-American communities, who continue to find themselves at greater risk for multiple health conditions, including several types of vaccine-preventable infectious disease, and who also continue to find themselves underserved by the medical system, with lower overall vaccination rates as compared to the general population. If injustice in the medical system is occurring, this is where it exists, not in efforts to provide vaccination more broadly to Colorado’s children.
Even more specifically, Mr. Wilson’s claims against Senate Bill 163 misrepresent both the intent and substance of the legislation. The bill is not designed to infringe upon the “constitutional rights” of any of Colorado’s citizens; instead it seeks to strengthen and standardize the immunization exemption process, promote public health and ensure safe and healthy schools and communities, all while preserving the rights of parents with deeply held beliefs who choose not to vaccinate. Contrary to Mr. Wilson’s beliefs, it does not eliminate or restrict the personal belief exemption from vaccine requirements for school enrollment, nor is it a corporate initiative. It seeks to support the individual rights of Colorado citizens, while also seeking to strengthen and support the cause of public health and safety.
In conclusion, I do not doubt Mr. Wilson’s sincerity in desiring to protect African-American people, but I do doubt his conclusions. His arguments seem, to me, to be based on an interweaving of logical fallacies, anxiety, and faulty evidence...the same mixture of fear and ignorance that has been leveraged against our shared community, and weaponized in oppressing us, for centuries. That he would rely on this volatile cocktail to frame his argument, especially in the midst of a global pandemic for which an eventual vaccine will hopefully become a critical intervention, is utterly ironic...and, ultimately, ill-advised.
Or, to use the colloquial (and paraphrasing the collective wisdom of countless African-American elders throughout history):
“Nah man. Nah.”
“Anti-vaxxers, come get your cousin. He needs to go home.”
Tamaan K. Osbourne-Roberts, MD, is a family physician, public health and policy expert, husband, and father. Learn more about him at TheDoctorLife.com.
However, to conflate this history of systemic racism and abuse with Colorado Senate Bill 163, as Theo E. J. Wilson recently does in his op-ed ‘Black and Vaxxed — a complicated history clashes with the future of Senate Bill 163,’ is at best ill-informed, and at worst, potentially harmful to the very community about whom Mr. Wilson professes to care so deeply.
Before I go any further, a little bit about me... I’m a Black, bilingual, full-time practicing family physician who has dedicated his entire clinical career to caring for underserved communities of color. I’m a local and national policy expert, having recently served as chief medical officer for Colorado Medicaid, and also having served as the first Black president of both the Colorado Medical Society and the Colorado Academy of Family Physicians. I sit on multiple national advisory councils for nutrition, health systems, and public health, and have co-authored multiple pieces of national policy on issues of health equity.
When it comes to the health of the African-American community, in many different ways, I’ve been (and still am) “in the trenches.”
And from my view in the trenches, it seems clear to me that Mr. Wilson’s recent piece completely misses the target in properly representing the health needs of the African-American community, the science of vaccinations, and the substance of Senate Bill 163.
I won’t rehash in detail how claims against vaccination utterly strain scientific credulity...how virtually every scientific and medical professional society, as well as the overwhelming majority of peer-reviewed researchers, support vaccination as a safe and effective public health intervention... how the supposedly landmark study linking the MMR vaccine to autism was retracted by the journal that published it, and the authoring physician’s license revoked over ethical concerns.
What I will point out is that, among legitimate concerns for vaccine safety, it must be stressed that all medical interventions, even interventions as simple as taking aspirin, come with a risk of serious side effects...and that serious vaccine side effects are rare. As a comparison, I doubt that Mr. Wilson would question the physics of flight, the reliance pilots have on such science, or the wide availability of commercial airline services, simply due to the fact that plane crashes inevitably occur, or because multi-billion dollar companies are involved in the construction of planes.
I will also point out that Mr. Wilson’s concerns are not simply mistaken, but potentially harmful to African-American communities, who continue to find themselves at greater risk for multiple health conditions, including several types of vaccine-preventable infectious disease, and who also continue to find themselves underserved by the medical system, with lower overall vaccination rates as compared to the general population. If injustice in the medical system is occurring, this is where it exists, not in efforts to provide vaccination more broadly to Colorado’s children.
Even more specifically, Mr. Wilson’s claims against Senate Bill 163 misrepresent both the intent and substance of the legislation. The bill is not designed to infringe upon the “constitutional rights” of any of Colorado’s citizens; instead it seeks to strengthen and standardize the immunization exemption process, promote public health and ensure safe and healthy schools and communities, all while preserving the rights of parents with deeply held beliefs who choose not to vaccinate. Contrary to Mr. Wilson’s beliefs, it does not eliminate or restrict the personal belief exemption from vaccine requirements for school enrollment, nor is it a corporate initiative. It seeks to support the individual rights of Colorado citizens, while also seeking to strengthen and support the cause of public health and safety.
In conclusion, I do not doubt Mr. Wilson’s sincerity in desiring to protect African-American people, but I do doubt his conclusions. His arguments seem, to me, to be based on an interweaving of logical fallacies, anxiety, and faulty evidence...the same mixture of fear and ignorance that has been leveraged against our shared community, and weaponized in oppressing us, for centuries. That he would rely on this volatile cocktail to frame his argument, especially in the midst of a global pandemic for which an eventual vaccine will hopefully become a critical intervention, is utterly ironic...and, ultimately, ill-advised.
Or, to use the colloquial (and paraphrasing the collective wisdom of countless African-American elders throughout history):
“Nah man. Nah.”
“Anti-vaxxers, come get your cousin. He needs to go home.”
Tamaan K. Osbourne-Roberts, MD, is a family physician, public health and policy expert, husband, and father. Learn more about him at TheDoctorLife.com.
Join Us
|
If you haven’t yet, please click here to join our network of pro-vaccine, pro-health, pro-community parents!
|
Follow Us on Social Media
Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter for regular updates, stories, vax-related information, and more!
|
|
Tell Your Friends About Us
|
Click here to tell your friends about us.
|