Last summer, as SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant cases rose significantly in Florida, I stopped at a barber shop not far from campus. The barber is a friend of mine who had participated in previous National Institutes of Health (NIH)-level community projects with our researchers at the University of South Florida (USF). Soon we were talking about spreading the word about the vaccines among members of Tampa’s diverse communities, where skepticism rooted in decades of distrust in public health remained high.
A customer listening from a nearby barber chair nodded. I asked if he planned to be vaccinated.
“Nah,” he said. “I’ve had COVID twice. I keep amoxicillin in my pocket, and that takes care of it.”
Unfortunately, this isn’t an isolated occurrence – even now, nearly two years into the pandemic. 
Dr. Kevin B. Sneed
Among diverse populations and throughout underrepresented communities, hesitancy remains around the safety and effectiveness of public health initiatives. Some of this can be traced to damage done by the federally funded Tuskegee syphilis study, in which Black sharecroppers were deceived and left untreated for 40 years, leading to more than 100 deaths.
Such distrust can become generational. Many young people today may not be fully aware of the Tuskegee study, and yet the mistrust it created has permeated their generation. It is not easily overcome but rebuilding that trust has never been more critical.
While minority vaccine uptake has improved in recent months, it still trails that of white persons in many areas of the country. According to reporting through Nov. 29 compiled by the Kaiser Family Foundation using CDC data, Black vaccination rates trailed white vaccination rates in 34 states, and Hispanic rates trailed white rates in 26 states.
