GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — This week hospitals in West Michigan started receiving shipments of the COVID vaccine. But there is concern among health leaders that groups will not get vaccinated.
"We just got to talk about it... this is a very uncomfortable conversation to have," says Dr. TaLawnda Bragg.
The discomfort comes because the medical community has not always been honest with certain groups, especially minorities.
"We had medical experimentation in the 90s, there was eugenics and sterilization, legally sterilizing women of color, of low income, to try and control the population," says Bragg.
That's why local health leaders held a public discussion on Thursday because they know people in minority communities are hesitant to take the COVID vaccine.
"We have to be very up front and recognize that yes there have been things that have happened in the past," says Grand Rapids City Commissioner Joe Jones.
But they say things have changed with regulation and rigorous testing related to the COVID vaccine.
"We have decades and decades of vaccine knowledge, so they started out with the science and then we went step by step through each phase of the clinical trial, phase 1, 2 and 3," says Bragg.
Now leaders say they want to lead by example.
"Just the mere fact that it was announced that Dr. Bragg is receiving the vaccine tomorrow, that's something that needs to be lauded and applauded and will go a long way," says Jones.
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