HYATTSVILLE, United States, Feb 28, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – Barber Mike Brown
carefully guides his trimmer as he fights misconceptions about Covid-19 among
his African-American customers, who face an outsize risk from the virus but
are less likely to get vaccinated.
Kerdell Porter is a 60-year-old mailman who said he has shared his doubts
about the vaccine with his barber, including the claim that the shots are a
ploy to kill Black people.
“I don’t trust it. The first person I know who got it, she fainted,” said
Akeem Momoh, a Black teenager who sweeps the floor of The Shop hair spa in
Hyattsville, Maryland, a suburb of Washington.
Brown isn’t shocked by this skepticism about vaccines, even though studies
show they save lives.
Like him, all his clients have heard of the Tuskegee study, in which US
government scientists monitored Black men with syphilis for 40 years, but
didn’t give them treatment in order to observe the infection take its course.
“Folks are thinking in terms of the historical issues that we’ve faced
before. There’s caution, a high level of caution, which is understandable,”
said Brian Ayers, a 49-year-old Black man, while having his beard trimmed.
For Brown, discrimination against African Americans is the reason for their
mistrust of the health system in general and immunization in particular.
– ‘Correct info to our community’ –
“They won’t really go to a doctor or see a doctor until their arm is about
to fall off,” added the fortysomething with orange sneakers, who says he cuts
the hair of everyone “from judges to trashmen, thieves”.
African Americans, who make up just under half of Washington’s population,
account for some 75 percent of its deaths from Covid-19.
Polls show high levels of Covid vaccine skepticism among Black people in
the United States, but serious questions have also been raised about whether
the initial roll-out of the shots has been equitable.
Brown has tried to make his clients’ trust in him work to keep them safe
from the virus.
After his father’s death from a long illness, he joined forces with a
doctor to help prevent colon cancer and heart disease.
Already something of a marriage counselor and fashion advisor for the
customers in his chair, the pandemic has also made him a promoter of the
vaccine and virus curbs.
Brown has statistics, data and quotes from experts ready to debunk the
conspiracy theories his clients have picked up from sources like social
media.
Posters promoting Covid prevention are displayed on the four red walls of
the shop alongside press clippings and a clock bearing the image of Barack
Obama, America’s first Black president.
“I take pride in relaying correct information to our community,” Brown
said.
His efforts have not been in vain: three of his vaccine-skeptical clients
have since gone to receive their shots.
With a bit of fact-based persuasion and his wife’s urging, even Porter has
decided he will roll up his sleeve for the vaccine when his turn comes.
“If they call me tomorrow I’m going to be there!,” he said.