Health care workers answer questions about the COVID-19 vaccines.
Orlando Harris, PhD, FNP, MPH explains how Black people were included in the COVID vaccine research studies.
I was a part of the expert African American panel, which is a group of providers like myself, nurses, doctors, community, people, et cetera. That was created through the NIH to review the various different vaccine protocols for the different companies that were developing the vaccine.
Taking off my hat as a clinician and a researcher, I have to go home and have conversations with my mom, with my dad and my grandparents about the vaccine and why taking the vaccine is important. Being on that—on the panel—and reviewing the protocols with the rest of my colleagues, it gave me great insight.
So now I can have this conversation with you. I can have it with my family, and I can say, “Actually, we were represented in the trials, and this is the, you know, these are the numbers, et cetera.” And it makes, even with my patients, it makes for better conversations because I can have that discussion with them.
