Black Scientists' Task Force on Vaccine Equity
The Black Scientists' Task Force on Vaccine Equity is a Canadian public-private partnership based in Toronto, Ontario. It was created in December 2020 by the City of Toronto as part of the TO Supports: Targeted Equity Action Plan in partnership with the TAIBU Community Health Centre to increase vaccine uptake/combat “vaccine hesitancy” among black people of African and Caribbean origins.[1][2]
Town Hall Meetings
The Task Force held a series of virtual “town hall meetings” in order to “harness trusted community partners, health and medical professionals and academics to deliver fundamentals of vaccine development and immunization essentials.”[3] Partners for the events included Black Creek Community Health Centre (CHC), Black North Initiative (BNI), Black Opportunities Fund, Black Physicians' Association of Ontario (BPAO), Canadian Black Clergy and Allies (CBCA), the Black Health Alliance, the Canadian Multicultural Inventors Museum, the Harriet Tubman Institute, the Jamaican Canadian Association (JCA), the Walnut Foundation, Wellesley Institute, and Women's Health in Women's Hands.
The group estimated that “vaccine hesitancy was reduced by at least 25% among approximately 6785 participants in its 20 Town Halls”. A final report produced six action points:
- “Immunization coverage does not match racialized rates of positivity, hospitalization, and death”;
- “Inadequate sick days and income support” (which calls for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit to be transitioned into a form of universal basic income);
- “Deliberate misinformation circulated on social media”;
- “Availability of race-based data”;
- “Surging mental health concerns”;
- “Shortage of vaccines across source countries for families of many Black Torontonians compounding local stress and grief” (calling on the federal government to send 15% of its supply overseas through COVAX and the World Health Organization, to bolster support for Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, as well as support a measure of the World Trade Organization to remove regulatory barriers to scale up vaccine production).
Membership
Members of the task force include:[1:1]
| Name | Position | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Akwatu Khenti | Chair | Dalla Lana School of Public Health, Ontario Anti-Racism Directorate (ARD), Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), Council of Canadian Academies (CCA) |
| Zainab Abdurrahman | Member | McMaster Children's Hospital, Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table (OST) |
| Trevor Aldridge | Member | Brevitas Consulting, Sanofi Pasteur, Health Canada |
| Upton Allen | Member | University of Toronto, SickKids, Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table (OST) |
| David Burt | Member | Ontario Genomics |
| Celina Caesar-Chavannes | Member | Parliament of Canada |
| Liben Gebremikael | Member[4] | TAIBU Community Health Centre |
| Francis Jeffers | Member | Visions of Science Network for Learning |
| Juannittah Kamera | Member | Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) |
| Na-Koshie Lamptey | Member | City of Toronto |
| Kwame McKenzie | Member | Wellesley Institute, University of Toronto, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table (OST) |
| Onye Nnorom | Member | Black Physicians' Association of Ontario (BPAO), Race, Health & Happiness |
| Isaac Odame | Member | Global Sickle Cell Disease Network (GSCDN), University of Toronto, SickKids Centre for Global Child Health |
| Ashleigh Rae-Thomas | Member | BASHY Magazine |
| Dionne Sinclair | Member | Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario (RNAO), College of Nurses of Ontario, Orillia Soldiers' Memorial Hospital (OSMH), Southlake Regional Health Centre |
| Candice Todd | Member | - |
| Nicole Welch | Member | Toronto Public Health |
External links
Media Relations. (2021, February 3). Black Scientists’ Task Force on Vaccine Equity. City of Toronto. https://www.toronto.ca/news/black-scientists-task-force-on-vaccine-equity/ ↩︎ ↩︎
COVID-19: City Immunization Strategies. (2021, January 18). City of Toronto. https://web.archive.org/web/20210914130859/https://www.toronto.ca/home/covid-19/covid-19-vaccines/covid-19-city-immunization-program/ ↩︎
Khenti, A. (2021). Black Scientists’ Task Force on Vaccine Equity c/o Taibu Community Health Centre. City of Toronto. https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2021/hl/comm/communicationfile-132894.pdf ↩︎
Home. Black Scientists’ Task Force on Vaccine Equity. Retrieved November 24, 2024, from https://web.archive.org/web/20241124210831/https://www.torontoblackcovid.com/ ↩︎