New data show that 49% of Black Americans would not take a coronavirus vaccine, even it was “deemed safe by scientists and freely available.” The survey, a joint effort by the Kaiser Family Foundation and ESPN’s The Undefeated, explores public views on health care and was answered by over 1,750 U.S. adults, with an oversampling of Black adults. Communities of color have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic: Black and Latino adults are three times as likely as White adults to be infected with COVID-19 and twice as likely to die. Yet long-held mistrust of the healthcare system, on top of underrepresentation in vaccine clinical trials, is leading to vaccine safety concerns among these communities. (Whereas the survey finds that White respondents who would decline the vaccine where more likely to say they don’t think they need it.) The PCC’s Policy Committee explored these topics with guest speaker Tammy Boyd of the Black Women’s Health Imperative (BWHI) at its October meeting. BWHI is a PCC Executive Member.