Investigating COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance and Hesitancy Using “Black Twitter”

AIR is investigating the causes of COVID-19 vaccination hesitancy within the Black community. By examining conversations on “Black Twitter” about the COVID-19 vaccine, our findings can help inform timely communication strategies to address vaccine distrust among Black Americans and create more effective outreach campaigns. 

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CDC flyer urging people to get vaccinated against COVID

“Learning more about COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among Black Americans can help improve vaccination rates and support public health efforts to reduce COVID-19 incidence, especially for high-risk groups. But it also can contribute to the way we understand medical mistrust more broadly. Ultimately, creating trustworthy health systems is essential,” notes Trenita Childers, Ph.D., health care policy researcher.

Related Resources

Freelon, D., Lopez, L., Clark, M. D., & Jackson, S. J. (2018, August 5). How Black Twitter and other social media communities interact with mainstream news. https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/nhsd9
 
Brandon, Dwayne T., Lydia A. Isaac, and Thomas A. LaVeist. 2005. "The legacy of Tuskegee and trust in medical care: is Tuskegee responsible for race differences in mistrust of medical care?" Journal of the National Medical Association 97(7):951-56.
 
Copeland, Valire Carr. 2005. "African Americans: disparities in health care access and utilization." Health & Social Work 30(3):265-70. 
 
LaVeist, T. A., K. J. Nickerson, and J. V. Bowie. 2000. "Attitudes about racism, medical mistrust, and satisfaction with care among African American and white cardiac patients." Medical Care Research and Review (Journal Article):146-61.
 
Skloot, Rebecca. 2010. The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks. New York: Crown Publishers.
 
van Ryn, Michelle, Diana Burgess, John F. Dovidio, Sean Phelan, M, Somnath Saha, Jennifer Malat, Joan M. Griffin, Steven S. Fu, and Sylvia Perry. 2011. "The Impact of Racism on Clinician Cognition, Behavior, and Clinical Decision Making." Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race 8(1):199-218.
 
Washington, Harriet A. 2006. Medical Apartheid : The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present. New York: Doubleday.