LANSING– Mistrust in government had a bigger impact on COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy than medical mistrust among African Americans in Southeast Michigan, according to a recent study.

Led by Mark Manning, an assistant professor of psychology at Oakland University, researchers surveyed 382 African Americans in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties early in the pandemic.

Manning said his research was prompted by evidence of greater COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among African Americans and prior findings of medical mistrust as a barrier to some of their health decisions.

The findings “make sense in hindsight, as the government had a very large and visible role in fast tracking development and dissemination of the vaccines,” said Manning.

The study was published in the journal Annals of Behavioral Medicine.

Abram Wagner, an associate professor of epidemiology and global public health at the University of Michigan, said, “It’s not surprising that a person who kind of distrusts the government, distrusts [political organizations], would also have a distrust for a vaccine which has been so associated with them.”

Wagner, who was not part of the study, researches vaccine effectiveness and hesitancy with an interest in vaccines for COVID-19, measles and other illnesses.

“Reasons why individuals are vaccine-hesitant vary a lot [depending] on the type of vaccine, place, demographic group and the time,” said Wagner.

“You can see [medical mistrust] in certain groups, like African Americans, who historically have had a lot of discrimination in medical and health care settings.”

Terri Laws, an associate professor of African and African American studies at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, said some people have rational reasons to not trust the government’s medical initatives.

She citied a controversial study that ended in 1972 called the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male.

“It was a government-funded study to allow syphilis to grow in untreated Black men in Macon County, Alabama,” Laws said.

“The purpose really was to seek autopsies and that, eventually, those men would die so one could view which of the bodily systems were damaged through the syphilis.”

Wagner said vaccine hesitancy has been around for a long time, noting that social media has exacerbated reluctance.

Manning said, “There is no sugar-coating the extent to which Americans, regardless of partisanship, currently mistrust our government.”

“It is important to consider that such mistrust can have effects on one’s health behavior and, subsequently, one’s health,” he said.

With U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert Kennedy Jr. and other Trump administration officials expressing concerns about vaccines, some health experts expect more vaccine hesitancy nationally.

Laws said she has concerns about the administration’s crackdown on government DEI-related research.

“What is currently happening in the government with respect to putting limits on grants, putting limits on wording associated with things like health equity, are going to make the situation even worse,” said Laws.

The study also found that women who were surveyed had a slightly higher rate of vaccine hesitancy than men.

Wagner said, “For most families, women will be the primary decision-maker for their kids’ health because they’re often the ones taking their kids to the doctor.”

Some solutions to combating hesitancy include getting in the routine of receiving vaccinations and better education about vaccines in schools and with doctors, said Wagner.

Andrew Cox, the director of Macomb County Health Department, said the department provides vaccination data to the Macomb Health Equity Council to educate and clarify myths community residents may hear.

Cox said it’s important not to pressure people into getting vaccines, but to “provide all the information we can and let people make informed decisions.”

“That’s how we’re going to see improvements in vaccine rates,” he said.

Laws said that research about patients and providers sharing similar demographics like race show a positive impact on increasing healthy behaviors, possibly including vaccines.

“It’s important for all of us to understand health inequality, in part because we don’t know which group we’re going to fall into in terms of a health disparity,” she said.

“Health equality is not about lessening the health of one group. It is about raising the health status of all groups.”