Minorities are hesitant to get vaccines not because of mistrust, but rather due to deep-rooted racism in the healthcare community, according to Carolina Luna-Pinto.

She writes that “race is a social rather than biological construct, created to preserve the social hierarchy brought about by slavery in the USA,” so when vaccine intentions focus on race and ethnicity and not racism, they are perpetuating the system.

Part of the problem, according to Luna-Pinto, is the lack of diversity in providers and she calls for “media and scientific scholars to contextualize how culturally and linguistically relevant factors might affect vaccine intentions and uptake among people of colour.”

She ends the article with calls to action for the media, including replacing “race or ethnicity” with “racism” and to examine how racism influences vaccine-seeking behavior. 

When writing about disparities in vaccine intentions and uptake, it is recommended the media, scientific scholars and journals:

• Avoid blaming people of colour, by  naming racism (not race or ethnicity) as the primary risk factor for     disparities in vaccine intentions and uptake.
• Name other contextual factors (for example, inequitable access and mistrust) and other related risk factors     as probable alternates for these disparities.
• Acknowledge and critically examine how experiences of racism, discrimination and health inequities (and not     race or ethnicity) influence vaccine-seeking behaviours among people of colour.
• Acknowledge that race is a social construct, and not a biological driver for disparities in vaccine intentions and uptake.
• Examine race and ethnicity as indicators, and not drivers, of inequities and disparities in vaccine intentions and uptake.

Someone that believes the healthcare community as a whole is racist should have no part of the federal health community.

(Source)

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In an October 2024 presentation on emergency preparedness, Carolina Luna-Pinto trained CDC attendees on health equity.

To prepare for an emergency, Luna-Pinto and the Office of Health Equity are offering trainings on topics such as racism, communication, and organizational policy.

She also spoke about CDC’s Health Equity Power of Partnerships Alliance with local DEI offices, where one of their key focus areas is cultivating “equity-focused scenario exercises to improve emergency responses.” As the fires in California illustrate, DEI should not be a focus during a national emergency rather traditional response and prevention should be.

(Source)