Thompson listens as public health officials implore Black people
to move beyond their skepticism and have faith in medical ingenuity. Thompson sees Black doctors, like John Wesley Patton III, enthusiastically publicize the moment they get
vaccinated and stress the importance of inoculation.
The suffering the deadly virus inflicts is “no joke,” the anesthesiologist wrote in a January Instagram caption. “Trust science. Don’t lose hope. Stay together. We’re gonna get through this.”
But even if they come from other Black people like Patton, the words don’t penetrate Thompson’s mental barricade.
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The Sacramento resident is not really fearful of the science behind the vaccine but has a deep mistrust in government she said has failed Black people again and again.