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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 13, 2021)
Page 6 The Skanner Portland & Seattle January 13, 2021 Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Interview cont’d from pg 5 able coronaviruses vac- cinations, overturning the Trump administra- tion’s plan to reserve half of the available doses. But only 26% of the vaccines distributed to Oregon have been ad- ministered, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Gov. Kate Brown has told the Oregon Health Authority to meet a goal of 12,000 vaccina- tions a day statewide. (For up-to-date informa- tion on statewide vacci- nations, visit the Oregon Health Authority dash- board here: https://pub- lic.tableau.com/profile/ oregon.health.authori- ty.covid.19#!/vizhome/ OregonCOVID-19Vacci- nationTrends/Oregon- StatewideVaccination- Trends). Myth: The Vaccine Gives You Coronavirus & Changes Your DNA “Usually, vaccines are made from either live or very weakened viruses to encourage the body to develop antibodies to them, which then leads to immunity to those virus- es,” Anderson said. But neither the Moderna nor the Pfizer vaccines con- tain a live virus. Instead, they use the emerging technology of messenger RNA (or mRNA). “The mRNA vaccine en- codes the protein spike of the virus, which will not cause the disease. When given it is insert- ed into cells in lymph nodes near the injection site to trigger immune response and create anti- bodies to fight infection,” Anderson explained. At no point is the coro- navirus itself introduced through the vaccine. The messenger RNA does not enter the cell nucleus, where DNA is kept. Be- cause of this, the vaccine does not in any way im- pact or interact with ge- netic material. “It does enter the cells, and in that sense, it caus- es the cell to in fact stim- ulate antibodies to the vi- rus. It certainly changes the cells so that they’re able to better protect themselves and to help to develop antibodies to the virus.” Myth: It Was Developed Too Fast “I certainly am hearing people who are skeptical about the time it’s taken to develop the vaccine,” Anderson said. “Usually vaccines take five to 20 years to manufacture, to get right. The thing is we have had an increase in tech- nology over time, which has shortened the time period. And I think that that will continue. I think we will continue to see that, as new technologies emerge in the future.” Anderson points out that vaccines rapidly de- veloped in response to pandemics are, in fact, written into U.S. public policy. “We do have a pandem- ic plan that was actually put into place in 2005, right after the SARS ep- idemic. And that was put in place by the ad- ministration of George W Bush. Certainly the Obama administration updated it, and put it into effect around H1N1 and also Ebola.” The global magnitude, speed, and fatality rate of COVID-19 made it a top research priority, and this urgency has meant unprecedented financial and scientific resources have been devoted to de- veloping a vaccine, tap- ping into the expertise of public, private, and top educational institutions worldwide. Similarly, the flu vac- cine is refined each year based on predictions of which strains are most likely to emerge. Fighting Distrust Public health officials must grapple with the history of medical rac- ism in the U.S., ranging from White providers’ often institutionalized racial biases and misun- derstanding of pain tol- erance in Black patients, to violent medical exper- “ Anderson reported he had the Moderna vac- cine. “People have to realize that the people that are taking care of them in the hospitals are taking the vaccine -- I just had mine last week,” he said. “So if we’re still here, it can’t be that bad. People have to realize that the people that are taking care of them in the hospitals are taking the vaccine imentation performed on Black bodies without consent and often with- out knowledge. “We tend to do things to people and not with people,” Anderson said. “And that has been the problem in the past.” A report co-authored by the NAACP found that Black respondents who knew of the Tuskegee Syphilis study were sig- nificantly less likely to opt for the vaccine, and that only 14% of Black Americans surveyed trusted the vaccine was safe, and only 18% trust- ed it was effective. It also found that Black Americans were twice as likely to trust messaging from someone of their own racial or ethnic group. “I think that they ought to know that the data has been peer-reviewed, by individuals who look like them. Also, I think it would be beneficial for a lot of doctors and nurses of color to certainly be the leaders in trying to get people vaccinated. I think that this is a great time for the (Historically Black Colleges and Uni- versities) to tout the ex- pertise of the graduates, and to try to mobilize those individuals to en- courage individuals of color to be vaccinated.” Still, Anderson be- lieves the best approach is for local organizations to identify vaccine-relat- ed apprehension within their respective commu- nities. “There are some things that might be univer- sal, but I think the mes- saging has to be local,” Anderson said. “It’s just psychology. All politics is local. Well, so is health- care.” Vaccination is volun- tary, and Anderson urg- es similar consideration when talking with people about their fears. “I think that we do it conversation by conver- sation,” he said. “That we tell the truth, and we keep telling the truth. We try to have a conver- sation with anybody who wants to have a conversa- tion with us, and the sec- ond part is important. “I just ask, ‘Do you plan to take the vaccine?’ We’re just having a con- versation. So if I’m an Uber, I’m having a con- versation with the Uber driver. I’m not trying to convince him so much as I’m trying to listen to why or why not he’s go- ing to have the vaccine. I’m really listening to their explanations.” Anderson offers a nov- el suggestion for demys- tifying the shot. “I’ve also said that per- haps the one personal thing that everybody can do is when they get their vaccine, to post a screen- shot on social media, and to have a conversation,” he said.
