The Toronto Black COVID-19 Task Force leaves questions unanswered

BY AMANDA WILLIAMS

On Saturday, February 27^th, 2021, The Toronto Black COVID-19 Task Force 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.  While the three-hour meeting can 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.

Dr David Burt suggests misinformation comes from certain groups, libertarians, and people that want to cause trouble on the Internet. The truth is, there is not much data or evidence to prove the vaccine is actually safe. People have questions and many feel that there has been a lack of transparency surrounding these topics.

With only 10% of blacks being involved in clinical trials, the community wants to know, what race-based data is there to prove the vaccine is safe? While Dr David Burt suggests they are, he is unable to provide evidence beyond the clinical trials. There is currently no way to monitor subgroups such as people of different ethic or racial backgrounds who decide to take the vaccine. “Canada does not have the capacity to do that yet, although there is strong advocacy from many communities to start to collect that information,” says Dr Na-Koshie Lamptey.

When addressing concerns about people being microchipped through the vaccine, Trevor Aldridge does not believe that it would be possible and has “No idea where people are getting that from.”

When asked if pregnant women can take the vaccine, Dr Isaac Odame cited that women were not enrolled in studies for Pfizer and Moderna vaccine trials; however, he says, “...there doesn’t seem to be any scientific or medical reason why a pregnant woman who wants to have the vaccine should be denied the vaccine in terms of safety”.

Dr Odame also references a time in history the black community was denied the polio vaccine. He uses this time history to suggest the black community would be suffering another inequity if the vaccine weren’t taken.

Trust within the black community needs to be earned as racism and other inequities are still prevalent within the community. Why should the black community jump on the opportunity to take a vaccine just because they were denied one in the past?

Concerns about Bill Gates were mentioned including rumours of eliminating the Negroid race and his financial ties to the vaccine and various organizations including Global Canada. Questions were not read in full to provide context and instead were grouped together and generalized. Dr Odame stated that he does not work for and has no associations with Bill Gates and the foundation in any way, but suggests that they are helping save lives and “It doesn’t make sense” that they would want to kill people.

The task force group also 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 15 minutes early, leaving multiple questions left 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?

Dr Burt says, “You need a good immune system for the vaccine to work.” Many people argue that it is because they have a good immune system, they have not contracted Covid and therefore do not need the vaccine.

If the Task Force expects to reduce hesitancy, it is crucial that they provide reference to actual data, studies, and/or evidence to support their statements. Toronto Caribbean Newspaper has forwarded unanswered questions directly to the task force to help the black community make informed decisions around COVID-19 vaccines.