According to reports, many African Americans are skeptical about getting the COVID-19 vaccine and it doesn’t help that there remains the story of a troubling history of unsuspecting Black men who were part of the Tuskegee experiment and suffered greatly at the hands of a horrific governmental experiment.
For that reason and more, Blacks are hesitant to embrace the idea of getting vaccinated because of distrust with the government.
But despite their concerns, there’s a deadly strain of a new variant of the coronavirus, which has been labeled the Delta variant, on the rise that is giving healthcare officials a much deeper cause for pause and concern.
According to The Los Angeles Sentinel, many health experts and local leaders across the country are making sure to encourage Black people to get the COVID-19 vaccinations as there is new data that is showing an increase in Delta variant cases in Black communities.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Hospital – MLKCH posted on its Facebook page numbers showing that Black people are being affected more by the virus than other communities, and is encouraging all Black people who are unvaccinated to visit their nearest healthcare facility to get a vaccination.
- In CA, the Delta variant was responsible for 38% of new cases as of the end of June, up from 5.6% of new cases in May.
- In LA County, the Delta variant made up nearly 50% of new COVID-19 cases, up from 5% just four weeks earlier.
- At MLKCH, COVID cases are steadily on the rise.
- Over 51% of all new cases have been Black/African Americans and 42% of all new cases have been Latino/Hispanic.