Organizations promoting vaccine confidence in Canadian communities will receive up to $50,000 for the year; Hmmmm

BY SIMONE J. SMITH

In the last few weeks, I have been receiving email after email from African focused organizations and groups, requesting the newspapers attendance at events focused on vaccine confidence in the African-Caribbean community.

This phenomenon is happening across the globe. There is a push to educate Africans in the diaspora about the COVID-19 vaccine to help with the hesitancy that many are feeling about it. Why the hesitancy, well for those Africans living in North America, we have suffered through medical atrocities that have traumatized our people for generations. It is no wonder that there are some of us that are giving this vaccine the side eye.

I agree that we need to be educated on this vaccine. It is one of the reasons why when these invitations from various groups across the city came in, someone from our team would attend so that we could share information about the vaccine. We have heard horror stories, but in the interest of true journalism, we wanted to ensure that we provided balance for our community.

My outspoken reporter Amanda Williams attended the first panel. It occurred on Saturday, February 27^th, 2021, and was put on by The Toronto Black COVID-19 Task Force. They held a town hall meeting titled “Misinformation and Conspiracy Theories.” Topics to be addressed were: Vaccine production companies cannot be trusted, nature and fruits are the real medicine, and doctors don’t know everything. What was interesting was while the three-hour meeting could be viewed on the task Force’s Facebook page, they failed to provide clarity on these specific topics and focused more on inequities and why people should get the vaccine.

The task force group failed to address the mentioned TED talk where Gates spoke about the possibilities of reducing the population with new vaccines and reproductive health services. The meeting ended fifteen minutes early, leaving multiple questions unanswered, such as:

• How much of the $6.8M invested in this program was used to educate health professionals in anti-racism to ensure the black community receives equal care and treatment?
• We are unable to distinguish the difference between Covid, pneumonia, or influenza. Deaths of other causes are also being counted as Covid. What evidence is there that proves the black community is affected most by Covid specifically and not by other causes of death?
• Why is there such a hard push to get the vaccine, when it cannot prevent transmission?
• Will people be expected to take multiple vaccines as the virus continues to mutate?
• There have been reports of deaths and other adverse effects of healthy people after receiving their second shot of the vaccine. What evidence is there to show this vaccine is safe specifically for the black community?
• What evidence is there to prove death and adverse effects are not vaccine-related?
• How are you monitoring the black community specifically to ensure its safety and effectiveness?

Up to this point, we have not received answers to these questions. It was why when I was invited to the Black Health Task Force of Peel Presents: From Vaccine Concerns to Vaccine Confidence; Supporting Peel’s Black Community, I thought it would be an opportunity to get some answers to these questions. This Town Hall was presented as an opportunity for black, African, and Caribbean community members in Peel to discuss their concerns, ask questions about COVID-19, COVID-19 vaccine and hear from seasoned health professionals and community leaders on the topic.

Dr Dionne Duncan moderated this event, and the panellists include:

Dr. Sandra Romain

Dr. Zainab Abdurrahman

Dr. Akwatu Khenti

Lydia-Joi Marshall

I sat in the Town Hall meeting for about an hour and a half. During this time, the panellists focused on answering certain questions about the vaccine, and for the most part were able to carry the dialogue with precision. I was curious that when a question was asked about how the community was to respond to the fact that pharmaceutical companies would not compensate individuals who suffered adverse reactions to vaccines, the panel seemed unable to confidently move through the question.

I won’t lie. At that point I pretty much tuned out. There were a few other really great questions that were put out that did not receive strong answers, but I will say they did better than The Toronto Black COVID-19 Task Force.

On Friday, I received another email from the Black Opportunity Fund. On Saturday, March 13^th, 2021, they would be co-hosting a digital Town Hall with nearly a dozen black doctors and healthcare practitioners to give black Canadians direct access to professionals who come from their communities. Titled “COVID-19 and the Black Community: Answering Questions About COVID Vaccines.” Together they would be tackling misinformation about the vaccine, increase awareness, and empower community members to make well-informed healthcare decisions. It would be the largest event of its kind to be held in Canada.

This one unfortunately I had to decline because I had a packed Saturday, but it did get me thinking. Why was there such a full court press by so many organizations to convince our community to take this vaccine?  Each group provided statistics showing how the community is disproportionately affected by COVID-19, and because of this it was important that we were vaccinated.

Hmmmmm!

Saturday afternoon, I received an email that brought me some answers. The Canadian government has begun a campaign to encourage vaccine confidence in Canada. Organizations promoting vaccine confidence in Canadian communities would receive up to $50,000 for the year. The application deadline is April 5^th, 2021 before 8:00 pm EST.

According to this promoted vaccine confidence initiative, vaccines are fundamental tools for preventing infectious diseases, and low vaccination rates can threaten the health of Canadian and international communities. They state that complex factors influence the decision to accept vaccines. Some of these factors are dependent on science literacy levels and others are personal or societal.

They explain that achieving widespread vaccine acceptance requires an understanding of the need for vaccines, an understanding of the safety of vaccines, the removal of barriers to access vaccines, and greater confidence in vaccines. Canadians need reliable and trusted sources of evidence to inform their decisions about vaccines.

So, to meet this need, they are providing grant support to organizations with strong track records of science and/or health promotion to deliver evidence-based, vaccine-promoting information to key communities and groups and/or to build capacity in the community to promote confidence in vaccines.

What is expected is that funded activities will mobilize knowledge to improve public understanding of vaccines and help Canadians to make evidence-based decisions, especially among populations that are hesitant about vaccines.

Well look at that! It is well known that Africans living in the diaspora are hesitant when it comes to this vaccine and for good reason.

Of course, some examples of eligible activities included providing scientifically sound information about vaccines via: social media, hotlines, webinars, forums or websites in a way that addresses beliefs and fears. The actives would have to share historical perspectives on pandemics and vaccine development to build trust and confidence in the community, as well as provide techniques for identifying reliable sources of information versus misinformation pertaining to vaccines.

I want the community to really think about this. I want you to think about it long and hard. I am not going to draw any correlations for you, but there is a reason that this vaccine is being pushed down our throats.

I encourage you as I always have to do your research. Attend events like these and ask tough questions. See what answers you get back, and if they satisfy your queries, then do what is good for you and your family.

My job is to always provide context, and I really hope I was able to do that.

Knowledge is power people! Knowledge is power!