20 townhalls later, here's how Toronto's Black scientists' task force reduced vaccine hesitancy

A group of doctors and health-care experts says a series of online townhalls significantly reducing vaccine hesitancy among some Black Torontonians.

Toronto's Black scientists' task force on vaccine equity was formed in Dec. 2020 in the face of disproportionately high rates of COVID-19 among Black Torontonians — and high levels of vaccine hesitancy.

To tackle the issue, the task force hosted 20 online meetings over five months, aimed at everyone from Caribbean seniors to Black farm workers and the Black LGBTQ community.

In the task force's final report, they describe events built on the principle of "respectful dialogue," with one participant describing them as "culturally and racially safe spaces" to ask questions and get information about vaccine safety.

"Really, we wanted people to be informed decision makers," said chair Dr. Akwatu Khenti in an interview with CBC Toronto.

"And we always said, you know, you may decide not to get vaccinated, but you'll never be able to say, 'I didn't have access to the science.'"

Thanks to surveys conducted before and after the townhalls, it's possible to see their impact on the nearly 7,000 people who participated.

"We've seen a reduction in hesitancy by at least 20 per cent amongst the attendees," said task force member Dr. David Burt in a presentation at Toronto's Board of Health on Monday.

"It's really emphasized how equity-grounded public health vaccination rollouts can help overcome vaccine hesitancy."

Those shifting attitudes among participants can have a "cascading effect," the task force says, with community partners telling them they saw evidence that a new sense of positivity around vaccines was spreading after the sessions.

7 recommendations, from mental health to misinformation

The task force's final report also contains seven wide-ranging recommendations, based on the feedback and concerns that participants raised.

In describing those concerns, the report gets at the roots of Black distrust of medical professionals in general, and of vaccines in particular, which Khenti says are rooted in historical events such as the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, in which Black men in Alabama were unwittingly subjected to an unethical medical experiments.

"In order for us to be able to address that issue and and many other issues like it, we also had to be grounded in history," said Khenti.

Among the seven recommendations intended to improve the heath of Black communities is the "ring-fencing" (or separation) of vaccine doses specifically for Black residents.

The task force says the allocation of doses should be based on race, as well as location, to reflect the fact that Blacks are more likely to be hospitalized and die from the virus.

Given the high proportion of Black essential workers, the report also calls for 10 paid sick days, as well as more rigorous labelling of misleading information on social media and the creation of a Black mental health strategy.

"Job losses, loss of income, wealth erosion, lost educational opportunities and home-schooling all added to the pressures on the Black families as never before," said the report, describing a rising tide of anxiety and hopelessness in the face of the pandemic.

The need for better collection of race-based data is also highlighted — not just for COVID-19 vaccination or infection, but across all Ontario health institutions.

"If we didn't have race-based data today, we might still be arguing whether Blacks and racialized populations have COVID disparities," said Khenti, arguing that policy makers need that level of clarity for all health issues, not just for who is contracting the virus.

In a response, the Ministry of Health told CBC Toronto that it has begun the voluntary collection of sociodemographic data for COVID-19 cases and vaccination, though Khenti says vaccination data collection can be spotty.

A provincial spokesperson also said they are "currently exploring options for a long-term approach to collecting this information." The province did not comment on plans to expand data collection to other parts of the health system.

More work to be done

Khenti says the task force has plans to continue into the fall, with the goal of tackling two major issues.

The first is parents, who will soon have to make decisions for their children about vaccination.

"We need to do the same thing [as the townhalls], but at a deeper level with Black parents, to explain to them the risk and the benefits of the vaccine for the children," he said.

The other major issue to tackle is anxiety around vaccination passports, which Khenti says are stoking fears of being targeted unfairly by police for not having one.

The report's recommendations will be considered by the Board of Health and then sent on to city council in mid-July.

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.