Black Americans are nearly twice as likely to live in areas that would be disproportionately disrupted by a health crisis like COVID-19.
A median white familys wealth is 10 times that of a median Black family.
Addressing the racial wealth gap could increase US GDP by 4-6% by 2028.
Only 20% of Black workers are able to work from home during the current crisis.
In a recent interview, Harvard University behavioural scientist Dr. David R. Williams commented that, The coronavirus did not create racial inequities in health. It has just uncovered and revealed them. These disparities have long existed in the US, and persist across leading causes of death, from the cradle to the grave.
One inequality that the pandemic had laid bare, and that is significantly impacting health outcomes, is Americas wealth gap between white and Black Americans. In 2016, the wealth of a median white family was 10 times that of a median Black family, and a Black family was two times more likely to live in poverty than its white counterpart. That massive gap weighs heavily on the prospects of Black Americans; it is estimated that some 70% of Black children who grow up middle class will not achieve middle-class status as adults.
The tragic irony of this situation is that eliminating the racial wealth gap would actually present a tremendous opportunity for the overall US economy. Currently, in terms of consumption and investment, the racial wealth gap could negatively impact the economy by between $1 trillion and $1.5 trillion between 2019 and 2028. On the flipside, if the racial wealth gap were to be addressed, US GDP could increase from 4-6% by 2028, potentially adding $2,900-$4,399 in per capita GDP, which is comparable to the explosive economic growth the US experienced during the dotcom era of the 1990s.
The pandemic has brought into stark relief many of the issues and disparities that created and continue to perpetuate the racial wealth gap. Decades of racism and persistent systemic inequalities not only make Black Americans more vulnerable to the effects of the virus, but also make it even harder for them to fight against the impact of the virus. In addition, not only was the impact of COVID-19 on the lives and livelihoods of Black Americans predictable, but also it uncovered greater disparities than we had previously understood.
To begin with, Black Americans are nearly two times as likely to live in areas that would be disproportionately disrupted by a health crisis like COVID-19. That is true in part because the majority of Black Americans live in areas with substandard access to quality healthcare and public health services. In addition, Black Americans disproportionately reside where air quality levels are poor, which becomes a major risk factor when dealing with a respiratory disease like COVID-19.
What most Black Americas do for a living is also a major factor in how they are being impacted by the coronavirus. While many American workers are working from home to avoid exposure, Black Americans are much less likely to be able to take advantage of this new workplace dynamic: Only 20% of Black workers are able to work from home in the current situation, as compared to 30% of white workers and 37% of Asian workers.
COVID-19 has impacted Black Americans hardest
One reason that few Black Americans can work from home during the pandemic is that they represent a disproportionate percentage of nine of the 10 lowest-wage jobs that are deemed to be high-contact, essential services. Of particular concern is the fact that many of those jobs are front-line healthcare positions, meaning Black Americans are being put at a much greater risk of contracting the virus just by the work they perform, which is work that helps treat and protect others from the virus.
These, and other issues, also predispose Black Americans to medical conditions that greatly increase the risks associated with COVID-19. Black Americans are 30% more likely to suffer from co-morbidities including cardiovascular disease, asthma, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, hypertension and obesity.
The totality of those factors has created an incredibly dire situation for the lives and livelihoods of many Black Americans in the wake of COVID-19. Fortunately, solutions exist that can fundamentally change these situations for the better, including:
Community health workers can be trained and deployed in high-risk areas in order to connect patients to appropriate healthcare and social services, as well as helping to rebuild trust in the overall healthcare system.
The expiration of federal support could devastate minority communities, which means actions including moratoriums on evictions, unemployment insurance and hazard pay must be extended for those hardest hit.
Faith-based organizations can redouble their efforts to teach effective prevention measures including proper hygiene techniques and social distancing.
Employers can have a transformative and tangible impact by giving hazard pay that is more reflective of the risks front-line workers are taking, as well as increasing those incentives for employees from more vulnerable populations.
Employers can also expand healthcare benefits, subsidize access to protective equipment and develop relationships with businesses like hotels that can provide increased protection to at-risk staff.
Public-private partnerships can be developed to give vulnerable populations more access to primary care physicians.
Public-private partnerships can also help increase access to broadband, giving needy Black Americans the opportunity to benefit from expanding telehealth services.
Better and more equitable access to broadband will also enable more Black families to take better advantage of remote learning opportunities to make sure their children do not lose ground academically during the pandemic.
Any COVID-19-induced recession will also disproportionately impact the economic viability of many Black Americans. To ensure more at-risk individuals do not experience financial calamity, both private- and public-sector organizations can offer significantly more low-interest liquidity to Black households. These efforts could include flexible repayment programs and credit forgiveness for periods of time that allow individuals to get back on their feet as the country reopens and their ability to earn a living returns. Long-term rent support and moratoriums on foreclosures could also help protect those at risk.
The COVID-19 pandemic and recent social and political unrest have created a profound sense of urgency for companies to actively work to tackle racial injustice and inequality. In response, the Forum's Platform for Shaping the Future of the New Economy and Society has established a high-level community of Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officers. The community will develop a vision, strategies and tools to proactively embed equity into the post-pandemic recovery and shape long-term inclusive change in our economies and societies.
As businesses emerge from the COVID-19 crisis, they have a unique opportunity to ensure that equity, inclusion and justice define the "new normal" and tackle exclusion, bias and discrimination related to race, gender, ability, sexual orientation and all other forms of human diversity. It is increasingly clear that new workplace technologies and practices can be leveraged to significantly improve diversity, equity and inclusion outcomes.
The World Economic Forum has developed a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Toolkit, to outline the practical opportunities that this new technology represents for diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, while describing the challenges that come with it.
The toolkit explores how technology can help reduce bias from recruitment processes, diversify talent pools and benchmark diversity and inclusion across organisations. The toolkit also cites research that suggests well-managed diverse teams significantly outperform homogenous ones over time, across profitability, innovation, decision-making and employee engagement.
The Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Toolkit is available here.
The economic legacy of COVID-19 has been devastating for Black Americans, further increasing the racial wealth divide and aggravating historic issues that have made it more difficult for Black Americans to thrive. That cannot be allowed to continue. More must be done to invest in communities to continue to save lives, enhance livelihoods and reimagine more inclusive systems where these disparities dont exist in the first place.
TRI-CITIES (WJHL) Many school systems in our region are already back in class whether thats virtually or in person, but what happens if a teacher has to be isolated due to COVID-19 exposure?
If more and more teachers or assistants do become ill we do have a concern about staffing, said Dr. Suzanne Bryant, Greeneville City Schools assistant director of schools.
Kingsport City Schools, Johnson County Schools, and Greeneville City Schools are all starting the year with total virtual instruction.
We are really back into beginning of the year mode, said Andy True, assistant superintendent of administration with Kingsport City Schools. So most of our teaching positions at this point we have been able to fill.
All three districts say they are fully staffed when it comes to full-time and substitute teachers.
So far Ive spoken to Greeneville City Schools and Johnson County Schools about school staffing during a pandemic.
How are they training substitute teachers and what is their plan if a teacher was unable to teach due to having #COVID19? Hear their answers tonight at 6. @WJHL11 pic.twitter.com/6MSnHXDrgo
However, that could change if teachers are diagnosed with COVID-19.
We have trained our substitute teachers in our Canvas learning management system and also how to lead Zoom meetings but currently we are not using our substitute teachers for that purpose, said Bryant. If we have to have a substitute during online learning our other teachers who teach that same subject or grade level are filling in.
In Johnson County, Director of Schools Dr. Mischellen Simcox said substitutes wont be utilized until students are back in the classroom.
We will not be utilizing substitute teachers while were in the virtual learning environment, the full virtual. You know the classroom instruction will have to come from teachers, Simcox said.
What if a teacher has to quarantine due to COVID19?
Where we are doing the virtual right now they will just continue to do that from home if they are quarantined, Simcox said.
All three districts are also prepared with school nurses to help monitor students.
Having healthcare available in our classrooms, in our schools is always a priority for us even more so now, said True.
As these school systems convert from virtual learning to back in the classroom their need for substitute teachers will increase, which is something True said Kingsport City Schools is prepared for.
The Office of Residential Life, Housing and Food Services at the University of Nevada, Reno has been working for months in preparation for housing students in one of the 12 on-campus residence halls amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. In accordance with directives from federal and state government, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, residence halls will occupy no more than 50 students per floor at the start of the 2020 Fall semester.
After Marchs shutdown, we knew we had to prepare for a range of scenarios going into Fall 2020, Dean Kennedy, University executive director of Residential Life, Housing and Food Services, said. Our office has been in weekly communications with the more than 3,000 students who signed up to receive University housing this year. Students and their families have a number of questions about on-campus living during this pandemic and we are doing everything we can to answer them in a timely manner.
Given Governor Sisolaks extended emergency directives, which limit building occupancy and group gatherings through August, the University plans to house about 2,400 students. Kennedy explained students were given housing assignments on a first-come, first-served basis, based on their housing application date.
Due to the pandemic, housing availability remained fluid throughout the summer. Each week, the residential life office communicated with all students who applied for housing, grouping them into three categories: students assigned a building and a room, students assigned a building and students waitlisted for housing. Over the last few months, students in each group chose to cancel their housing applications due to the pandemic, which allowed housing to accommodate others who want to live on campus. Kennedy said a limited number of spaces for student housing are still available for students interested in living in the residence halls.
Across our facilities we are implementing several measures in an effort to increase the health and safety of residents and staff, Kennedy said.
Those measures include additional physical barriers in public spaces, hand sanitizer stations added to each building entrance, reduced furniture in spaces to maximize social distancing, mandatory face coverings for students and staff, social distancing signage to reinforce social and physical distancing and quarantine spaces designed for students who have nowhere else to go should they test positive for COVID-19. Janitorial and housekeeping services will also be enhanced across the residence halls with more frequent cleanings of high-touch surfaces with CDC-recommended cleaning agents.
By living on campus, whether you are learning online or in-person, you have access to more experienced students including resident advisors and resident directors who can guide you through the collegiate educational experience because they are living just down the hall, Kennedy said. In addition, should you need assistance with studying, test-taking, or even with beefing up your resume by getting involved with student organizations or undergraduate research, that involvement is 100% easier when you live close to those resources/access points.
While life on campus will undoubtedly look different this fall, Kennedy stressed the communities, friendships and scholarship built between students when they live in the residence halls. He believes students living on campus this year will benefit from being around other students in a similar situation. Paraprofessional resident advisors and full-time resident directors with masters degrees are working on plans for how best to facilitate these communities, while conscious of the pandemic and all it entails.
The Residential Life, Housing, and Food Services student and full-time staff will be coordinating safe in-person and virtual activities where students can increase their friendship circles, Kennedy said.These connections broaden students' portfolio of learning where they live; and likely lead to other connections/relationships that will help them advance their career.Some of these connections could be finding their new best friend or life partner, job opportunities during or after college and other experiences they would never have access to through solely remote learning to get a degree.
James Wright, a resident director in the Nevada Living Learning Community added to what Kennedy said about on-campus living this year.
Our community development model has changed, Wright said. It is now less program-based and more about social interactions from both the resident advisors and also the residents. Passport event programs have been developed for both virtual and in-person events. Those in-person events will host 10 residents at a time and will require face coverings and social distance. We are going to do everything we can to help students connect with each other and with staff safely.
Wright also acknowledged the student staff who help create successful residential life experience. From resident advisors to academic mentors and senior resident advisors, each will play an integral role in helping new students feel connected to the University.
With Argenta Hall still offline, following a July 2019 gas line explosion that caused significant damage, two new interim housing contracts are in place for the 2020-2021 academic year, to make up for the approximately 800 beds needed. An agreement with CA Student Living Reno II, LLC ofUncommonRenoand Cardinal Group Management/Canyon Flats III, LLC ofCanyon Flatswill offer housing designed with students in mind.
While students living in these properties will have their own rooms and bathrooms and high-quality, newly constructed living facilities, there are slight delays in construction. Due to these unforeseen delays, which are a result of the pandemic, approximately 260 students assigned to these residence halls will have temporary housing at the Whitney Peak Hotel, a completely non-gaming hotel in Downtown Reno, until their rooms are ready for occupancy. The University anticipates they will be able to transition into Canyon Flats by Sept 5, if not sooner, and into Uncommon by Aug. 24, if not sooner.
While staying at the Whitney Peak, the University is working to keep students grouped together and not intermingled with other tenants; though this may not be possible for every resident. Additionally, due to this temporary shift in accommodations, students staying at the Whitney Peak Hotel will share a room with one other student, likely their roommate from Canyon Flats or Uncommon, until they can move into their more permanent residence.
Similar to Wolf Pack Tower last year, the University will have full-time and student staff living at the Whitney Peak Hotel. There will be University staff on each floor where students will reside. Two security officers will be on site 24/7. University Police Services will also be adding the hotel to its patrol.
We recognize this is a less than ideal situation for our students, Kennedy said. In order to make things easier during their short-term stay, students will have transportation to and from campus, which will be provided from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. (and for meals during Move-in). In addition, students will receive $25 in Wolf Bucks per night for this inconvenience. Wolf Bucks are loaded onto a student ID card and can be used with food vendors across campus, including The Wolf Shop.
The current plan is to have all dining venues across campus open and provide quality service along with additional protective health and safety measures. Those include more grab-and-go services in order to adhere to state occupancy directives. Extra hand sanitizer stations have been added to all dining locations and Nevada Dining is looking into possible delivery options.
This year, University move-in will be spread over the course of five days, Aug. 18-22. Students and their families are asked to limit guests and to check-in during their chosen day and time to ensure everyones health and safety.
LE MARS, Iowa (KTIV) - A local high school band is doing everything they can to minimize the risk of COVID-19 exposure during band class.
"These are basically like the masks that you would wear over your face, but they will go on the bell of the instrument instead," said Band Director Michael Prichard.
The Le Mars Community High School Band will be "masking" their instruments-- by using bell covers.
A method recommended by the National Federation of State High School Association, and the College Band Directors National Association.
"So the studies being done through the NFHS out in Colorado and Maryland show that the aerosols that could potentially carry the virus can be spread through the bells of the instrument," said Prichard.
According to the College Band Directors National Association, the goal of the aerosol study is to identify ways performers can meet in person-- with the lowest risk possible. That's how they came up with using the nylon bell covers for the instruments.
"They will go over the edge of the bells and that way they trap a lot of the aerosols that are normally harmful, and we can clean those bell covers," said Prichard. "We were able to order fabric that was the correct thickness, and it's two layers thick,".
The school band is composed of nearly 100 students.Prichard says it's important for them to let the students do what they love to do, especially after being quarantined for months.
"I know that our students are excited to be back together," said Prichard.
The bell covers are being distributed to every band student 5th grade through 12th grade.
Hurst said the facility screens people before coming in and doesn't allow visitors. He said the spread likely occurred because of an asymptomatic individual.
"They didnt find it because someone looked symptomatic, its because of testing. Did anybody there do anything wrong? I have a hard time saying somebody did," Hurst said, noting, "I dont get all that evidence."
Hurst said the lesson is, "the (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) guidelines are insufficient to prevent the spread in the nursing homes. What we see nursing homes doing is holding stricter policies."
Hurst said the Department of Inspections and Appeals has been doing inspections in person and over the phone.
"We're well aware of what's going on with patients," he said.
On Monday afternoon, the state COVID-19 website listed 1,426 positive cases in Pottawattamie County out of 16,284 tests, for an 8.8% positive rate. The site listed 1,070 recoveries.
Coronavirus.iowa.gov also listed a 30th death in the county. Wyant said his office was unaware of the death and as of Monday afternoon had not been able to confirm it.
The website listed 52,722 cases in state out of 561,762 tests for a 9.4% positive rate, with 981 deaths and 40,788 recoveries.
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Instruction
What the immune response to COVID-19 says about the prospects for a vaccine. Nature.com
"I wish that when we went into lockdown (in March), we looked like Italy," Dr. Deborah Birx said Monday. "When Italy locked down, I mean, people weren't allowed out of their houses (without a pass). Americans don't react well to that kind of prohibition."
In Italy as the virus spread, residents were told to stay home and only leave for essential activities. Authorities would stop people and check to make sure they had documents that said where and why they were traveling.
In a roundtable discussion hosted by Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, Birx said she has learned what Americans are willing to do to combat the virus, and that officials must meet people where they are.
"People were interacting, people were out, but people, by just not doing those careful things, were able to drop the cases significantly, probably by more than 80%," Birx said.
That kind of behavioral change is something every American can do, she said.
"Tens of thousands of lives can be saved if we wear masks, and we don't have parties in our backyards ... taking those masks off," Birx said.
Jared Kushner, a White House senior adviser, disagreed, saying President Donald Trump was "very forward-leaning" when he and the task force issued 15-day guidelines in mid-March.
"This was done at the time to make sure that we had enough hospital capacity and supplies, so that we didn't end up like Italy, where there were people dying on gurneys in waiting rooms," Kushner told CNN's Wolf Blitzer.
He complimented the President on the administration's response to a ventilator shortage, repeating the White House line that no American who needed a ventilator didn't get one.
"So, I think we have done much better than Italy with regards to how we handled this initially," he said.
Kushner said the United States is in the middle phase of the pandemic and the administration is using what it has learned to protect the most vulnerable people. He said they were rushing resources to nursing homes.
Virus is No. 3 killer in the US
The virus, which didn't even exist a year ago, is now killing more Americans than Alzheimer's disease, accidents and diabetes.
Over the past three weeks, the US has averaged more than 1,000 Covid-19 deaths per day.
"Covid is now the No. 3 cause of death in the US -- ahead of accidents, injuries, lung disease, diabetes, Alzheimer's, and many, many other causes," said Dr. Thomas Frieden, a former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Heart disease and cancer are the leading causes of death in the US, according to the CDC.
The rate of deaths from Covid-19 is also much greater in the US than in many other countries, Frieden said.
"Last week, Americans were eight times more likely to get killed by Covid than were Europeans," he said.
Less testing = more infected people walking around
Just as more students head back to school, health experts are worried about a disturbing trend: decreasing testing combined with high test positivity rates.
In other words, Covid-19 is still spreading rampantly, but there's less testing to find and isolate cases.
Fifteen states conducted fewer tests this past week compared to the previous week: Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin.
"The testing situation is not good in the United States. What we're not picking up is people who are contagious," said Dr. William Haseltine, chairman and president of Access Health International.
"We're probably missing 8 out of 10 people who are contagious. And any decrease in testing is worrisome because we're not already doing well. And if you don't pick people out of a crowd who are contagious, then the epidemic spreads. ... This epidemic is still spreading widely."
Why are some states testing less?
Medical experts say there could be several reasons.
"One of the reasons that testing is decreasing is that supplies aren't being shipped to places that can test. I think it's part of a strategy not to count how many people are infected," Haseltine said.
Florida governor touts success
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the state has seen six consecutive weeks of decline in test positivity rates.
And the number of patients hospitalized with coronavirus has declined by nearly 40% since peaking July 22, he added. The number of ICU patients is down 30% since July 18.
DeSantis said he thinks the downward trends across the state are durable. "We're going to continue to work hard to be able to see these good trends."
One of the measures the state took to blunt the number of cases was closing bars in late June.
Halsey Beshears, Florida's top business regulator, is reviewing feedback and ideas from his meetings with bar and brewery owners from across the state, but no timeline for the reopening of bars has been set, according to Karen Smith, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation.
"While no time frame for reopening is certain, Secretary Beshears understands the urgency advocated by business owners in these recent meetings," Smith said.
Shortage of minority volunteers could delay vaccines
That's not nearly enough, as trial participants are supposed to reflect the population that's affected. Research shows more than half of US Covid-19 cases have been among Black and Latino people.
In the 1800s, Dr. J. Marion Sims experimented on slaves and performed surgeries without their consent and without anesthesia.
So far, phases 1 and 2 have shown the vaccine to be safe. Some volunteers experienced fever and muscle aches, but they felt better after a day or two.
A fast, inexpensive test just got emergency approval
There is some good news: A new saliva test could give Americans a quick way of learning if they have Covid-19 -- and if they need to isolate to help prevent the spread.
"If cheap alternatives like SalivaDirect can be implemented across the country, we may finally get a handle on this pandemic, even before a vaccine," said Nathan Grubaugh, a Yale assistant professor of epidemiology.
"We simplified the test so that it only costs a couple of dollars for reagents, and we expect that labs will only charge about $10 per sample," Grubaugh said.
CNN's Elizabeth Cohen, Rosa Flores, Carma Hassan, Madeline Holcombe, Jamiel Lynch, Denise Royal, Chandler Thornton and Dana Vigue contributed to this report.
The West Virginia Department of Health andHuman Resources (DHHR) reportsas of 10:00 a.m., on August 17, 2020, there have been 360,669 total confirmatory laboratory results receivedfor COVID-19, with 8,632 total cases and 160 deaths.
CASESPER COUNTY: Barbour (33), Berkeley (738), Boone(120), Braxton (8), Brooke (77), Cabell (459), Calhoun (7), Clay (18),Doddridge (6), Fayette (168), Gilmer (18), Grant (131), Greenbrier (96),Hampshire (89), Hancock (114), Hardy (63), Harrison (245), Jackson (168),Jefferson (305), Kanawha (1,095), Lewis (28), Lincoln (108), Logan (362),Marion (199), Marshall (130), Mason (74), McDowell (67), Mercer (243), Mineral(127), Mingo (202), Monongalia (992), Monroe (20), Morgan (33), Nicholas (40),Ohio (283), Pendleton (43), Pleasants (14), Pocahontas (42), Preston (130),Putnam (225), Raleigh (304), Randolph (213), Ritchie (3), Roane (20), Summers (19),Taylor (81), Tucker (11), Tyler (15), Upshur (39), Wayne (221), Webster (4),Wetzel (44), Wirt (7), Wood (283), Wyoming (48).
Ascase surveillance continues at the local health department level, it may revealthat those tested in a certain county may not be a resident of that county, oreven the state as an individual in question may have crossed the state borderto be tested. Such is the case of Fayette, Harrison, Randolph, and Upshurcounties in this report.
Pleasenote that delays may be experienced with the reporting of information from thelocal health department to DHHR. Data is published daily at 10 a.m. on thedashboard located at www.coronavirus.wv.gov.
That's not nearly enough, as study subjects in trials are supposed to reflect the population that's affected. Research shows that more than half of US coronavirus cases have been among Black and Latino people.
Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, gave the Moderna trial, the first in Phase 3 in the United States, a "C" grade for recruiting minorities.
"From the first week I saw the numbers, and they were not as encouraging as I would have liked," Collins told CNN.
If not enough Black people and other minorities enroll, the panel of experts who monitor the trials could force a delay until they get the numbers they need.
"That's something that's been actively discussed," said Dr. Nelson Michael, coordinator of community engagement activities for Operation Warp Speed. "There's a lot of concern."
Black leaders agree that it's a challenge to recruit Black people into the vaccine trials, especially since it needs to happen very quickly -- the first two Phase 3 clinical trials started in late July and expect to finish enrollment in September.
"This is a very, very tall order," said Dr. James Powell, a Cincinnati physician who has been approached with requests to encourage Black participation in the vaccine trials.
"When we Black people hear 'clinical trials,' we think 'we're not going to be researched on,' and that's across economic status and across educational status, not just one sector," said Renee Mahaffey Harris, president of The Center for Closing the Health Gap in Cincinnati.
Moderna and Pfizer, the two US companies currently in Phase 3 trials, won't reveal how many of their participants are from minority groups. Each trial eventually expects to recruit 30,000 participants.
Moderna's 89 trial sites across the United States are "actively working within their local communities to reach a diverse population of volunteers," Ray Jordan, a company spokesman, wrote in an email. "We hope to achieve a shared goal that the participants in the (Covid-19 vaccine) study are representative of the communities at highest risk for COVID-19 and of our diverse society."
A Fourth of July Zoom call
At 10:20 p.m. on July 3, NIH's Collins sent an email to colleagues asking for a Zoom meeting the next day.
"I certainly ruined everybody's holiday," Collins remembers.
But he said the topic was "absolutely critical." He wanted to discuss how to recruit groups such as minorities and older people into the trials.
Collins says he told those at the July 4 meeting, including Michael and Dr. Anthony Fauci, that they had to make sure the trials "didn't go down the wrong path, because the default was clearly going to be that a lot of young white people would be likely to sign up, and we would have a trial that was scientifically way short of what it needed to be and would not engender anybody's confidence."
If an insufficient number of minorities sign up, the experts monitoring the trials might require additional recruitment.
"The Data Safety Monitoring Board could slow the trial down," Michael said. "If the demographics aren't right, they could tell the sponsor to slow enrollment down until you hit different numbers. They could say 'We do not want you to develop a vaccine tested for safety and efficacy basically on a single ethnic group.' "
There's another reason why researchers are trying to include minorities.
If everyone who volunteered for a coronavirus vaccine trial got their shot and then stayed home, at the end of the study they would likely all test negative for the virus, not necessarily because the vaccine worked, but because they never encountered the virus in the first place.
That's why in any vaccine study, including this one, researchers seek out study subjects who are most likely to come in contact with the virus in their daily lives.
That's health care workers, for example, and also minorities, who are more likely to have essential jobs that require in-person work, and more likely to live in multigenerational, multifamily households, among other factors.
After that Fourth of July meeting, the mission was clearer than ever: Engage minority communities to encourage them to join the clinical trials.
"There is a tremendous amount of pressure on this now. I've never seen community engagement get this level of play. Not even close. Ever," Michael said.
'I'm an old white guy'
Collins and Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, have made it clear they they're not the ones to speak directly to minorities to increase trust in vaccines.
"You want to go into the African American community with people who look and think and act like the people you're trying to convince," he said.
That's Mahaffey Harris, who has been doing advocacy and development work with minority communities for 30 years.
On August 5, Mahaffey Harris received a call from a doctor asking her to recruit minorities into the Moderna vaccine trial.
She knows she didn't give him the answer he was looking for.
"I am always cautious when I'm being contacted by anyone involved in pharmaceutical research because I, as a Black woman, never want to be a part of engaging and recruiting people for research that ends up having any bias in it or any hint of impropriety, like what happened at Tuskegee," she said.
She told the coronavirus researcher she will meet with him later this month.
She has received these calls in the past for other clinical trials.
"They'll say, 'I need 100 people' and I say, 'I'm not just going to get you 100 people," she said.
None of this surprises Dawn Baker, the first person in the United States to receive a coronavirus vaccine as part of a Phase 3 clinical trial.
After getting her first shot, Baker, a Black TV news anchor in Savannah, Georgia, received much love and support from her community, but also disbelief.
"Dawn done lost her damn mind," one woman wrote on Facebook.
"i got 2 words...TUSKEGEE EXPERIMENT," another wrote, referring to the infamous medical studies that abused Black men.
Two people just posted GIFs of Black people shaking their heads "no."
Baker received her shot three weeks ago, but said concerned Black people are still coming up to her, asking if she's feeling OK.
"I told them I've never felt better," said Baker, who doesn't know if she received the vaccine or the placebo. "But I can tell they're not sure if they believe me."
Government efforts to engage minorities
The NIH says it has "engagement efforts" with various groups, such as those that represent Black churches and Black doctors and nurses. Operation Warp Speed, a part of the US Department of Health and Human Services, says it has engaged with minority organizations as well.
Collins noted that some of the Moderna sites are commercial and others are a part of NIH's network. He said when the trial began July 27, the commercial sites started up first, and the NIH sites have opened up more recently.
"The NIH funded sites are in a better position to be able to emphasize and do the community engagements, to try to reach out to minority communities," he said. "Watch this space -- we're going to see this improve I think fairly rapidly," he said.
He added he had a meeting with top Moderna executives on July 10.
"I heard from them that they were really committed to this kind of diversity in enrollment," Collins said. "I heard absolutely strong endorsement of that from Stephane Bancel, the CEO, and from Stephen Hoge, the president. I was not concerned that they were considering this just a nice thing to do; they were clearly very committed."
The NIH set up the Covid-19 Prevention Network to recruit participants into the trials. In the next week to 10 days, the network will be releasing materials, such as print and radio spots and videos for social media, targeted to specific groups, including minorities, according to Kublin, the network's executive director of operations.
"I wish it had started a month go," Kublin said. "We have, all of us, been working 24/7 to make this happen as quickly as possible."
Michele Andrasik, the director of community engagement for the network, said she recognizes the hurdle to recruiting minorities for trials, but is optimistic that progress can be made as her group works on outreach programs in partnership with community groups.
"I think there are ways we can address the challenges that are inherent at the pace of what we've all been asked to do," Andrasik said.
What's not working: warp speed
As the name Operation Warp Speed suggests, the government and pharmaceutical companies are working quickly to come up with a vaccine against Covid-19.
Moderna and Pfizer started their Phase 3 trials July 27 and plan to fully enroll them in September. That's a speed unheard of in the history of vaccine clinical trials.
But Black leaders interviewed for this story said mistrust of medical institutions and the government, based on centuries of abuse and injustices, can't be undone that fast.
"They're not going to get the numbers for next month that they want. You have to build that trust," added Dr. Doris Browne, the president of the NMA.
It's also the legacy of Dr. J. Marion Sims, considered the father of modern gynecology, who in the mid-1800s experimented on slaves in the South, performing surgeries without their consent and without the use of anesthesia before surgery.
And from the 1940s until the 1970s, in several studies, researchers exposed hundreds of study subjects, mostly Black people, to potentially fatal amounts of radiation, according to Harriet Washington, author of "Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Experimentation from Colonial Times to the Present."
Injustices and disparities continue to this day.
"African-American people get treated differently. They have less access to doctors. When they describe their symptoms, they are not believed as often as Whites are. Medical technology is withheld from them. All of these things are a matter of record," said Washington, a lecturer in bioethics at Columbia University.
"Now we're approaching them with an experimental vaccine that we're offering as a benefit -- but asking people to trust that is asking a great deal," she added. "There's a risk to taking an experimental vaccine. There's just no way to sugar coat that."
Phase 1 and 2 trials of experimental coronavirus vaccines, with dozens or hundreds of study subjects each, have shown the vaccine to be safe. While some participants did experience symptoms such as fever and muscle aches, they felt better after a day or two.
Black leaders interviewed for this story said part of the problem is they were contacted by vaccine researchers just days or weeks ago, which didn't leave them much time.
"This has to be vetted through a process," he said. "At the Church of God in Christ we have a health advisory group that involves a dozen or so national experts and it takes time to walk through this and translate it to the 1,500 ministers and say what are we going to do for the six to eight million people who are in our church."
Daniels and other leaders wondered why they were contacted so recently when it's been known for many months that minorities would be needed in the trial.
"The researchers knew where they needed to be. Why did they wait until now?" said Powell of Project IMPACT.
The key for researchers to get what they want, he and others said, is to invest in long-term relationships with the Black community, and not call just at the beginning of a trial, asking Black people to roll up their sleeves and take the injections.
"Mistrust is always there when you don't invest in trustworthiness," he said.
Browne, the NMA president, said the vaccine researchers should have involved Black doctors from the start, as part of the planning and implementation of the trials.
"We are not in any way going to come in at the last minute to be utilized as an entre to get African-Americans or other people of color involved in a program where we don't have a clear understanding of every phase of it," she said.
What could work: relationships
Dr. Paul Bradley knew in advance that his office in Savannah would be the very first site in the United States to give someone an injection in a Phase 3 coronavirus clinical trial.
He knew that the first person he injected would get media attention. He thought about who that person should be, and Dawn Baker's name came immediately to mind.
Bradley has been Baker's family doctor for more than 30 years. He knows Baker is well-loved and has tremendous credibility in Savannah. Plus, he knew that, as a local TV anchor, she would handle interviews flawlessly.
And yes, she's Black -- that was a bonus, he said. He knew she'd inspire other Black people, and White people, too, to join the trial.
He asked her if she was interested, and she said yes.
"We've developed a great rapport. I go to events, and he's there. I've met his family. It's not just a medical relationship. I really do trust him," Baker said. "I knew Dr. Bradley wouldn't do anything to hurt me."
The next day, many of the people who came to Bradley's office to volunteer -- both Black and White -- cited Baker as the reason.
Baker said she knows there's resistance in her community to joining clinical trials, and she hopes she made a difference.
"Maybe since I was at least bold enough to come forward right now, that might change that -- that could eventually save their lives," she said. "I hope that maybe just seeing my face will help them to change their opinions about that."
Bradley's connections to the community helped in other ways, too.
"I don't take this lightly, to speak the truth and tell people to check it out and be a part of something," the mayor said. "If it wasn't for the people who stood up for the polio trials, we'd still have polio around."
Then Bradley spoke with Ricky Temple, pastor of Overcoming by Faith, one of the largest churches in Savannah with 3,000 members.
Ask any vaccine researcher about recruiting Black clinical trial participants, and they'll mention the power of churches. Their hope is that during a Sunday sermon, a preacher will encourage his or her flock to sign up.
Before he spoke with Bradley, CNN asked Temple if he'd ever consider speaking about the trials from his Sunday pulpit.
Temple laughed.
"You can't just have a preacher say, 'in our announcements today, trials are going to be held, and they're looking for Black people,'" Temple said. "The audience is going to be -- 'What they're going to come and put a germ in me?' They're going to be scared to death -- "you gonna put coronavirus in me?'"
After speaking with Bradley, Temple surveyed those close to him in the church, asking if he should bring the clinical trials up at a Sunday service.
"I met with my staff, and no one supported me doing it. They were 100% no, because of Tuskegee. I asked members, I asked families, and I got the same response. It was incredibly consistent. What I heard was fear," Temple said.
Temple's decision: to create a "courageous conversation" about the clinical trials with leaders in his church.
"We're big readers in our church, and I'll send out some documents. We have many medical professionals in our congregation, and I'll get them together, and we'll discuss this," he said.
He wonders why he has to put together documents that can address the fears about clinical trials. If the US government is so anxious to get minorities to enroll in the trials, why hasn't someone created a website, or even a pamphlet, with information?
Temple thinks that might make a difference in the eyes of his congregants.
"I'll create these courageous conversations, because this is something we should pray about, something we should care about," he said. "I think this could be an interesting education you can have if you open your heart to it."
