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Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price will take the COVID-19 vaccine Monday, and said Sunday he is encouraging others in the Black community to do the same.
Misinformation about the shot, he said in a statement, has made some in the Black community skeptical of the safety of the vaccine. He said he hopes getting his own dose publicly will help encourage others to do the same.
“This virus and its emerging variants are too dangerous for a demographic that is already vastly underserved in terms of healthcare delivery,” Price said.
He said he’s heard many people wrongly cite the historic Tuskegee experiment, where Black men in Alabama were deceived by federal health researchers from 1932 to 1972 in an effort to study syphilis. In that unethical experiment, critical care was withheld from the population.
In the case of the COVID-19 vaccine, however, the life-saving treatment is being readily provided to the community, Price said.
Our very own Commissioner John Wiley Price has a message for you. Please take a moment and listen to what he has to say. Always remember knowledge is power. We love you please stay safe family!!!
Posted by MtRose Church on Sunday, February 28, 2021
“The real travesty [in the Tuskegee experiment] was that health professionals had a cure and refused to share it with men who looked like me,” Price said. “I fight daily for those who have been underserved historically. Our senior and indigent populations should at least get an equal shot at this vaccine.”
Price, the longest serving commissioner, has been critical of the Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins’ response to the pandemic nearly from the start. Most recently, he has sharply criticized the vaccine rollout at Fair Park in South Dallas.
The site was selected by the Dallas County health department to increase access to the vaccine who live below Interstate 30 where there is a dearth of health care resources.
Like many vaccine providers across the country, Dallas County has had a difficult time vaccinating Black and Latino residents. A new federal program launched last week at Fair Park aims to correct that by targeting 17 of the counties most at-risk ZIP codes with 21,000 doses a week for three weeks.
Price will hold a news conference before getting his first dose of the vaccine at 10 a.m. Monday at the Ellis Davis Fieldhouse Complex.