PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Black Americans report high levels of vaccine hesitancy

Hesitancy also high among Black health Care workers

2021-03-01
(Press-News.org) Black Americans have a high level of vaccine hesitancy and mistrust of COVID-19 vaccines, including among Black health care workers, according to a new RAND Corporation survey.

Those who expressed vaccine hesitancy also showed high levels of overall mistrust in the vaccine, concerns about potential harm and side effects, and lack of confidence in vaccine effectiveness and safety.

Participants in the RAND survey reported higher trust in COVID-19 information from health care providers and public health officials than from elected local and federal officials.

The findings are based on a survey of 207 Black Americans who are participants in the RAND American Life Panel, a nationally representative internet panel. Participants were surveyed during November and December 2020.

"Public health messages and communication strategies to address vaccine hesitancy should be tailored through authentic community engagement," said Laura M. Bogart, the study's lead author and a senior behavioral scientist at RAND, a nonprofit research organization. "Messaging about COVID-19 vaccines should first acknowledge systemic racism as a justifiable reason for mistrust before providing transparent information about the vaccine, including specific information about efficacy and safety."

The survey found that mistrust of the government's motives and transparency around COVID-19, as well as beliefs about racism in health care, appear to be contributing to mistrust of the vaccine. In addition, the more participants believed that people close to them would want them to get vaccinated, the more likely they were to say that they would get vaccinated themselves.

Black Americans attribute their medical mistrust, in general and specific to COVID-19 vaccines, to systemic racism, including discrimination and mistreatment in health care, as well as by the government.

Overall, more than one-third of all survey participants agreed or strongly agreed that they would not get a COVID-19 vaccine, and an additional 25% said they "don't know" if they would become vaccinated. Only 40% indicated that they planned to get vaccinated.

Participants in health care fields, including health care practitioners and those in technical and support occupations, showed higher vaccine hesitancy. Specifically, 48% of participants in health care fields indicated that they would not get vaccinated, compared with 32% of participants who were not in health care-related occupations.

When asked about which sources they trusted for information about COVID-19, nearly two-thirds of all respondents said that they trusted health care professionals such as doctors and nurses. Health care providers were trusted by higher percentages of participants who said that they would get the vaccine (72%) than those who said that they would not (56%).

Participants said that public health campaigns should involve trusted, known community members and trusted local organizations. Some participants suggested partnerships with Black celebrities such as hip-hop artists to encourage vaccination.

INFORMATION:

The study, "What Contributes to COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy in Black Communities, and How Can It Be Addressed?," is available at http://www.rand.org.

Other authors of the study are Lu Dong, Priya Gandhi, Samantha Ryan, Terry L. Smith, David J. Klein, Luckie Alexander Fuller and Bisola O. Ojikutu.

RAND Health Care promotes healthier societies by improving health care systems in the United States and other countries.



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

4D bioengineering materials bend, curve like natural tissue

4D bioengineering materials bend, curve like natural tissue
2021-03-01
Tissue engineering has long-depended on geometrically static scaffolds seeded with cells in the lab to create new tissues and even organs. The scaffolding material -- usually a biodegradable polymer structure -- is supplied with cells and the cells, if supplied with the right nutrients, then develop into tissue as the underlying scaffold biodegrades. But this model ignores the extraordinarily dynamic morphological processes that underlie the natural development of tissues. Now, researchers at the END ...

Deep dive into bioarchaeological data reveals Mediterranean migration trends over 8,000 years

Deep dive into bioarchaeological data reveals Mediterranean migration trends over 8,000 years
2021-03-01
A team of international researchers led by a Florida State University assistant professor has analyzed reams of data from the Neolithic to Late Roman period looking at migration patterns across the Mediterranean and found that despite evidence of cultural connections, there's little evidence of massive migration across the region. "Because of the prevailing scholarly attitude of the 'connected' Mediterranean -- one with high degrees of mobility and migration that drive the archaeological patterns we see -- we'd imagined we'd see comparatively high levels of migration reflected in the strontium isotope data," said Thomas Leppard, assistant professor of anthropology at Florida State. "That instead ...

A research group proposes six guidelines for managing the impacts of invasive species

A research group proposes six guidelines for managing the impacts of invasive species
2021-03-01
 Invasive alien species, defined as animals and plants that breed and disperse in a landscape beyond their native range, have negative environmental, social, and economic impacts. One example among many is the forage grass genus Brachiaria, originally African and introduced to Brazil to form cattle pasture. It has become a major threat to the survival of native species and biodiversity at several spatial scales.  Complete eradication of invasive species is often impracticable. Attempts to do so have had undesirable consequences and even been damaging because merely withdrawing an invasive ...

Noisy brain activity contributes to aging-related navigation impairments

Noisy brain activity contributes to aging-related navigation impairments
2021-03-01
Too much activity in the hippocampus may cause navigation impairments seen in aging adults, according to new research published in JNeurosci. Spatial navigation is one of the cognitive abilities that declines sharply in old age. Older adults often have difficulty navigating new environments and will choose to stick with familiar ones. Plus, key regions in the brain's navigation circuit are some of the first affected by Alzheimer's disease. In a recent study, Diersch et al. examined the neural mechanism behind this decline in spatial learning. In the study, younger ...

Addressing a complex world of pain in a single gene difference

2021-03-01
A single letter difference in a single gene, inherited from both parents, spells a lifetime of anemia and pain for 20 million people, mostly of African ancestry, worldwide. Sickle cell disease (SCD) causes red blood cells to assume a sickle shape and jam in capillaries, cutting off oxygen to lungs, brain, bones and other organs. Despite the single genetic origin of SCD, each person's disease experience and even life expectancy depend upon where they live, and the social, physical and environmental factors they encounter. Now, a new review published by Wiley in the journal Advanced Genetics proposes that it is ...

Scientists describe 'hidden biodiversity crisis' as variation within species is lost

Scientists describe hidden biodiversity crisis as variation within species is lost
2021-03-01
The rapid loss of variation within species is a hidden biodiversity crisis, according to the authors of a new study looking at how this variation supports essential ecological functions and the benefits nature provides for people. Published March 1 in Nature Ecology and Evolution, the study highlights the need to better understand and conserve variation within species in order to safeguard nature's contributions to people. "Biodiversity means more than the number of species, and when we focus on species-level extinctions we are missing part of the story," said corresponding author Eric Palkovacs, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at UC Santa Cruz. "Intraspecific variation is a neglected aspect of biodiversity, ...

Reinforced by policies, charters segregate schools

2021-03-01
ITHACA, N.Y. - The expansion of charter schools in the 2000s led to an increase in school segregation and a slight decline in residential segregation, according to new research from Cornell University providing the first national estimates of the diverging trends. According to the study, the average district to expand charter school enrollment between 2000 and 2010 experienced a 12% increase in white-Black school segregation and a 2% decrease in white-Black residential segregation. The patterns moved in opposite directions, the research found, because charter ...

Potential target for treating many cancers found within GLI1 gene

2021-03-01
Scientists from the Stanley Manne Children's Research Institute at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago found that a region within the DNA of the cancer-promoting GLI1 gene is directly responsible for regulating this gene's expression. These findings, published in the journal Stem Cells, imply that this region within GLI1 could potentially be targeted as cancer treatment, since turning off GLI1 would interrupt excessive cell division characteristic of cancer. "From previous research, we know that GLI1 drives the unrelenting cell proliferation that is responsible for many cancers, and that this gene also stimulates its own expression," says co-senior author Philip Iannaccone, MD, PhD, Professor Emeritus at the Manne Research Institute at Lurie Children's and Northwestern ...

Natural product isolated from sea sponge tested against cancer cells

Natural product isolated from sea sponge tested against cancer cells
2021-03-01
Scientists from Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU) together with Russian and German colleagues, continue studying antitumor compounds synthesized based on bioactive molecules isolated from a sea sponge. One of them fights cancer cells resistant to standard chemotherapy, and at the same time has an interesting dual mechanism of action. A related article appears in Marine Drugs. Scientists have tested the biological effect of the marine alkaloid 3,10-dibromofascaplysin on various prostate cancer cells, including those resistant to standard docetaxel-based chemotherapy. ...

On calm days, sunlight warms the ocean surface and drives turbulence

On calm days, sunlight warms the ocean surface and drives turbulence
2021-03-01
CORVALLIS, Ore. - In tropical oceans, a combination of sunlight and weak winds drives up surface temperatures in the afternoon, increasing atmospheric turbulence, unprecedented new observational data collected by an Oregon State University researcher shows. The new findings could have important implications for weather forecasting and climate modeling, said Simon de Szoeke, a professor in OSU's College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences and the lead author of the study. "The ocean warms in the afternoon by just a degree or two, but it is an effect that has largely been ignored," said de Szoeke. ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Consistent policy, not “patchwork” regulations, recommended for the coexistence of crops

LEDs shed light on efficient tomato cultivation

2025 Ig Physics Nobel Prize for perfect pasta sauce

Bright squeezed light in the kilohertz frequency band

Water flowed on ancient asteroid

AI model offers accurate and explainable insights to support autism assessment

Process for dealing with sexual misconduct by doctors requires major reform

Severe pregnancy sickness raises risk of mental health conditions by over 50%

Early humans may have walked from Türkiye to mainland Europe, new groundbreaking research suggests

New study shows biochar’s electrical properties can influence rice field methane emissions

Guangdong faces largest chikungunya outbreak on record

Tirzepatide improves blood sugar control in children aged 10-17 years with type 2 diabetes inadequately controlled on existing therapies (SURPASS-PEDS trial)

An old drug, in a low dose, shown to be safe and effective in preventing progression of type 1 diabetes in children and young people (MELD-ATG trial)

Study reports potential effects of verapamil in slowing progression of type 1 diabetes

Fresh hope for type 1 diabetes as daily pill that slows onset confirms promise at 2-year follow-up

New estimates predict over 4 million missing people who would be alive in 2025 if not for inadequate type 1 diabetes care

So what should we call this – a grue jay?

Chicago Quantum Exchange-led coalition advances to final round in NSF Engine competition

Study identifies candidates for therapeutic targets in pediatric germ cell tumors

Media alert: The global burden of CVD

Study illuminates contributing factors to blood vessel leakage

What nations around the world can learn from Ukraine

Mixing tree species does not always make forests more drought-resilient

Public confidence in U.S. health agencies slides, fueled by declines among Democrats

“Quantum squeezing” a nanoscale particle for the first time

El Niño spurs extreme daily rain events despite drier monsoons in India

Two studies explore the genomic diversity of deadly mosquito vectors

Zebra finches categorize their vocal calls by meaning

Analysis challenges conventional wisdom about partisan support for US science funding

New model can accurately predict a forest’s future

[Press-News.org] Black Americans report high levels of vaccine hesitancy
Hesitancy also high among Black health Care workers