COGIC pastors discuss how to overcome vaccine hesitations
Some mentioned doubts rooted in the racism in the United States’ history of medicine. Some raised concerns about access for parishioners without regular medical care. One pastor said he hadn’t made up his mind whether to take the vaccine himself.
None of the pastors gathered via Zoom last week, leaders of the Church of God in Christ, said the roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccine in their church communities would be simple.
But several of the pastors emphatically said they would lead by example, offering to be among the first to take the vaccine.
“The church is now needed more than ever to speak to our people and to the broader community about whether or not we should take this vaccine. I am one who is convinced something has got to be done,” said Bishop David Hall Sr., prelate of the Tennessee Headquarters of the Church of God in Christ, who led the discussion. “We want to protect and safeguard our people’s lives against this dread disease.”
The Church of God in Christ is the largest Pentecostal denomination in the world, with a predominantly African American membership in the United States.
The pastors gathered by Hall spoke specifically of the need for the Black church to speak to its members about the COVID-19 vaccine.
“Throughout our history of our nation, our government has violated the trust of the Black race,” said the Rev. Morrell Pruitte, pastor of Victory Temple Church of God in Christ. “It is going to be hard to convince us to trust our government with this vaccine.”
Pruitte mentioned the governmentbacked Tuskegee Syphilis Study, in which Black men were told they were getting free medical care but instead were denied therapy for their syphilis for decades. He also spoke of Henrietta Lacks, the Black woman whose cells have been used in research around the world — without her knowledge or consent.
The Tuskegee experiment has been cited by Black participants in one focus group run by a foundation that supports the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as a reason for distrusting the COVID-19 vaccine.
In a September Pew survey, only 32% of Black adults said they would get a vaccine, down from 54% in May.
Ultimately, Pruitte said members of his faith had to trust God.
“Our trust can’t be in man, can’t be in medicine,” he said.
A few minutes later, he clarified. “Trust God, take the vaccine.”
Last week, the United Kingdom became the first Western country to start vaccinating its population against COVID-19. Dozens of hospitals in the U.K.’S state-run National Health Service started administering the COVID-19 inoculation to people over 80 who are either hospitalized or have outpatient appointments scheduled. Some nursing home workers also received the vaccine.
Shelby County expects to receive doses of the Pfizer vaccine later this month. Here, hospital employees, first responders and those working at longterm care and assisted living facilities will be among the first to receive the vaccine. Phase 1B will include other healthcare providers, while phase 1C will include teachers, correctional officers and others at high risk.
Also last week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration released a report summarizing data from Pfizer and BionTech’s COVID-19 candidate vaccine trial. The data supports earlier findings that the vaccine is safe and will prevent 95% of people from becoming sick with COVID-19.
If people don’t get vaccinated, they will remain vulnerable to the virus, which has ravaged communities of color in particular. Black Americans are 21⁄
2 times more likely to contract COVID-19, nearly five times as likely to be hospitalized with it and twice as likely to die from it, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Rev. James Griffin Sr., pastor of New Beginnings Community Church, said although he’s a senior who is particularly vulnerable to COVID-19, he is “wrestling personally” with whether to take the vaccine, and with what to say to his congregation. He’s encouraged by the high efficacy rating on the Pfizer vaccine, he said, and although he does not plan to tell his congregants what to do, he wants to give them the facts available.
“I’m struggling with it, but I’m hoping I’ll be able to say this is what I’m going to do based on the science I see, and certainly we believe and trust God regardless of where we are in this,” Griffin said. “I don’t think it’s lessening my faith in God by taking the vaccine.”
The group was joined by State Rep. G.A. Hardaway Sr., D-memphis. Hardaway assured the pastors that times have changed since the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, calling it a “gruesome wicked deed.” But, he said, it happened at a time when Black people had little access to information or authority.
“That’s not where we are today,” he said. “You send me to Nashville, you send my other members of the Tennessee Black Caucus of State Legislators to Nashville because we live in a republic that has representatives who vote for you, who represent your interests. ... We are in the forefront of developing the vaccine, of doing the research, of following the science. That’s us. We’re doing that.”
He too has plans to be vaccinated, Hardaway said.
Bishop Kendall Anderson, pastor of Homeland Church of God in Christ said he also has his mind made up.
Taking the vaccine is in line with his Christian faith, he said. After all, one of the authors of the New Testament was a doctor.
“I believe in divine healing. I also believe in doctors. Dr. Luke in the Bible, he was a physician,” Anderson said. “God made man. He made the physicians and gave them the wisdom to study the human body. I’m going to take it and I will set the example for my congregation.”