Tell It To Me Straight, Doc

Notes from America with Kai Wright

WNYC Studios

News Commentary, Politics, History, News

4.4 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 14 December 2020

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Two Black physicians describe the racist history the medical world carries into the COVID-19 vaccine rollout -- and answer listeners’ questions about why we should still get vaccinated. A recent Pew Research Center survey, among others, revealed that Black Americans are by far the most likely to know someone who’s been hospitalized or killed by COVID-19. It also found Black people are most reluctant to trust the vaccine. When Dr. Brittani M. James “rage Tweeted” that she totally gets why her patients are skeptical of the medical system, her thread went viral. She joins Kai to offer insights on the apprehension that many Black Americans are feeling, through the lens of her own experience as a practitioner and a patient. And Dr. Oni Blackstock, who has served on the frontlines of both COVID-19 and HIV interventions in New York City, responds to callers’ questions about the coming vaccine. What’s in it? How’d it get done so fast? And why should we trust pharmaceutical companies? She’s got answers. Companion listening for this episode: “Why Covid-19 Is Killing Black People” (April 24, 2020) and “Keep Calm and Check Your Bias” (March 26, 2020) “The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is the United States of Anxiety, a show about the unfinished business of our history and its grip on our future.
0:08.0	Tonight the moment the world has been waiting for the first shots given of a clinically approved COVID vaccine.
0:14.0	The closest comparison is the MMR vaccine which took start to finish four years to develop.
0:20.0	We actually have the capability, the technology, to actually develop things a lot faster.
0:25.0	I guess what I'm saying is I trust the scientists to do the right thing.
0:29.0	I'm going to have to convince my father because he don't know what this vaccine is about.
0:33.0	What was done cannot be undone, but we can end the silence.
0:38.1	I know testing and experimentation happened.
0:40.2	Why all of a sudden is it wild for me to think that it could happen again?
0:43.6	When we look at this COVID vaccine, it's got to be about how we not only end the pandemic,
0:48.8	but how we also heal the epidemic of racial injustice in our nation.
0:53.6	Welcome to the show, I'm Kai Wright, and let me say right at the top.
1:00.4	I am personally very ready to take the COVID-19 vaccine. I'm not a health worker and I'm not particularly at risk personally so I will have to wait some time for it which is right and, but when it is my turn, trust that I will be getting the shot,
1:18.6	which is a notable fact only because I am black.
1:22.2	And while there are lots and lots of types of people
1:24.5	who are uneasy about the vaccine,
1:26.5	survey data does suggest that black Americans
1:29.8	are uniquely worried about it,
1:31.6	which is a problem because we are also uniquely likely to both. uniquely
1:34.0	likely to both catch the virus and get seriously ill from it.
1:38.0	So a lot of people are talking about this dynamic
1:40.0	and I want to start this week's show
	...

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