Last week the coronavirus (COVID-19) daily death toll reached a record high in the U.S. for the third consecutive day according to ABCNews.com. On Thursday 4,085 COVID-19 deaths were reported according to data from Johns Hopkins University. It was the first time the U.S. had ever reached over 4,000 COVID-19 deaths in a single day. At least 365,882 Americans have died from the COVID-19 virus since the pandemic began. Despite the record high deaths, many people do not trust the safety of the vaccines authorized by the U.S. government, its CDC and FDA.
A high percentage of U.S. health care and frontline workers are refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine according to Forbes.com. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said he was “troubled” by the relatively low number of nursing home workers that agreed to be vaccinated. According to DeWine 60 percent of Ohio’s nursing home staff declined the COVID-19 vaccine in January.
Pew Research Center reports that Blacks are skeptical of the COVID-19 shot. “Vaccine reluctance is a direct consequence of the medical system’s mistreatment of Black people and past atrocities such as the unethical surgeries.” The Tuskegee Syphilis Study is a good example of “the culture of medical exploitation, abuse and neglect of Black Americans.” wrote emergency physicians Benjamin Thomas and Monique Smith in a New York Times op-ed.
There are those in the U.S. military that are skeptical about COVID-19 vaccine safety. Some question whethet the vaccine’s development and approval was rushed. Others have concerns about its potential side effects. According to usnews.com a sizable number of the U.S. military refuse to take the vaccine. Thomas McCaffrey, the assistant secretary of defense for health affairs was questioned why the vaccine was not mandatory for military personnel. .McCaffrey explained that the vaccine was voluntary because it had been approved by the FDA through an emergency authorization, and that was “the normal process”.
NNV News Blog Writer Sister Rose Morris
