Prayer and science led me to the vaccine

Opinion polls show that African Americans have the greatest hesitation of any group about the Covid vaccine. These reservations have their roots in centuries of illegal and unethical ill-treatment and experimentation by the nation’s medical establishment. In the 19th century, James Marion Sims, the man considered the father of modern gynecology, conducted dozens of experiments on enslaved women without anesthesia. The notorious “Tuskegee study of untreated syphilis in male blacks” continued until the 1970s.

The results in healthcare are not encouraging either. African Americans have twice the infant mortality rate of whites. African American women are more than three times more likely than their white counterparts to die from pregnancy-related causes. The breast cancer mortality rate is 42% higher for black women than for white women. My father died when I was only 16, thanks in large part to poorly diagnosed and abused hypertension. During the pandemic, disturbing news has emerged about the different treatment in American health centers.

Unfounded rumors about an attempt to use the vaccine to wipe out the black community have earned money among my fellow African Americans. I understand the general mistrust, but the painful truth is that blacks need the vaccine more than anyone. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says we are almost three times more likely than whites to die from Covid.

As a minister, I have been a personal witness to these deaths. I have buried many friends and church members. At the height of the pandemic, it regularly received reports of two or three deaths each day. I struggled to comfort and advise their survivors, most of whom could not be in the same room with their loved ones when they breathed. Over the weekend, I lost an old friend and co-worker to the virus. But I think the God who led us to slavery, Jim Crow, the Spanish flu and lynchings, can also guide us through this crisis.

As a father, grandfather, pastor, and community leader, I realized the importance of understanding the vaccine. This meant getting the facts from the most qualified scientists and doctors. A roundtable I organized in early January with several of the country’s leading infectious disease experts, including Anthony Fauci, Kizzmekia Corbett, and Yale medical professor Onyema Ogbuagu, provided a comprehensive description of the vaccine development process. Particularly useful were the details provided by Dr. Corbett, a young black woman and key scientist behind the development of Moderna’s new mRNA vaccine.

I received invaluable advice from my usual doctor, a black woman and member of my church who has received the vaccine herself. As I believe in the multitude of advisors, I also spoke with several leading infectious disease specialists in the Dallas area, a metropolis that is home to many world-renowned health facilities.

Eventually, it moved on to common sense. I am a 63 year old black man, a bit overweight and in an underlying state of health. The vaccine has been shown to decrease the chances of people like me getting the virus. So far, the side effects of the vaccine have been minimal or non-existent. It is true that no one knows anything about possible long-term side effects. But this is what we know: the virus has killed more than 500,000 people in this country alone, but the vaccine has not yet killed a single person. In addition, there is a lot of information about persistent debilitating symptoms among those who survive the virus.

I don’t consider myself a vaccine advocate. This is a personal decision. But you should not make a personal decision of critical importance without information or with little information. In an age where the line between fact and fiction is gradually eroding, it has never been more important to prevent people from being influenced by misinformation or the countless falsehoods that spread across the internet.

Here’s my unsolicited advice – do your own research. Pray. Check out a variety of credible sources, from your personal physician to federal agencies like the CDC. Your earnest search for the truth could save your life and your loved ones.

Bishop Jakes is a senior pastor of the House of Potter, a 30,000-member church based in Dallas.