Stacey Abrams
Stacey Abrams is one of the most effective community organizers of our time, best known for her pivotal work in the 2020 presidential election. During the pandemic, she’s turned her attention to addressing the issue of vaccine hesitancy. Abrams sees many parallels between democracy building during the 2020 election, and now in combating Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy. I spoke to Abrams about her plans to transform the pandemic’s hot button issue and why she feels compelled to do this important work.
Vaccine Hesitancy’s Links to Democracy
Most of Abrams’ initiatives are based in the rural South and this region in particular has been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. A 2020 poll found that of the 10 US counties with the highest death rates from Covid-19, five were in Georgia. In another study, rural Americans were found to have double the risk of dying from Covid-19 compared to their urban counterparts. These same rural areas ravaged by the pandemic have been historically underrepresented by the census, and amplifying the needs of underrepresented regions is what Abrams is famous for. “In our society who counts, who is valued and who can participate is one part of the question. But the other part of the question is who has access. And when it comes to vaccines, who has adequate information to make thoughtful choices. My job in seeing this gap is not to question the gap… but to fill the gap,” she says.
To bridge this divide, Abrams’ two organizations, Fair Count and The SEAP (Southern Economic Advancement Project), are working to bring vaccine education and access to areas where they’re needed most. This effort is led by Dr. Jeanine Abrams McLean, Fair Count’s president who is also a trained viral evolutionary biologist with former CDC experience. For McLean, public health and democracy building have always been linked, but particularly so during the pandemic where health disparities have become more visible. “Our goal is long-term power building in communities that have been marginalized. These same communities continue to be under-resourced, whether it’s the census or getting information about the pandemic or vaccines. Everything works together. If health disparities aren’t well-represented through civic engagement, it hinders people from being their best selves,” says McLean.
One way health disparities have shown themselves is through vaccination rates, with the rural South having lower rates compared to urban areas. McLean explains, “These areas are news deserts. That makes them highly susceptible to misinformation. The push for our work was in better understanding this narrative of vaccine hesitancy and what was at its root. Why are these narratives of people of color about being vaccine hesitant? And how can we change this narrative?” she asks.
Sarah Beth Gehl, The SEAP’s Research Director, has worked alongside McLean on vaccine hesitancy, ““Households that are the most marginalized are also the most likely to be left out of these democratic processes because of barriers like a lack of access or information. Whether its vaccine outreach or the census, our goal is to have the relationship and infrastructure in place to be responsive to community needs,” Gehl says when it comes to prevailing narratives about vaccine hesitancy, we need to ask ourselves, “Are these narratives about vaccine hesitancy true or are they actually about barriers to access?”
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Responding to Vaccine Hesitancy
Abrams’ organizations have been able to successfully leverage their community organizing experience to address the three most common barriers to Covid-19 vaccination: vaccine education, access and resources. Their initiatives have included tele-town halls in partnership with the Kaiser Family Foundation, a local microgrant program, their Count Me In effort, distributing vaccine education “litkits” and in-person vaccination events. For each of these initiatives, Abrams and her staff have used two fundamental organizing principles: listening to community needs and responding accordingly. “When community organizing is not done correctly, people go into communities and tell them what they need. But our programs give us information,” says McLean, “Understanding who you’re talking to, listening to the community you’re speaking to, getting feedback from the community and tailoring a response and future outreach and strategy based on that feedback” is what makes Abrams’ efforts resonant. Many participants continue to engage with these programs even after being vaccinated, “The conversation has to continue even after people are vaccinated because people continue to have questions. This is not a one and done scenario,” says McLean.
Building A Culture of Trust
The ability to engage everyday people into meaningful action is Stacey Abrams’ distinct brand. Whether it’s bringing people together to vote or to get vaccinated, Abrams believes trust is the key factor, “Effective community organizing is about trust. Building trust, repairing mistrust and about being entrusted with someone’s future. You can’t skip one of those steps. You have to carefully understand which one you’re doing and sometimes you’re doing all three. You’re building trust because [people are] getting to know you and your organization or the issue, you’re repairing mistrust because of a broken system and broken promises, and sometimes you’re trying to craft a whole new cloth. That’s the work in democracy building, civic engagement and public policy. Trust is the fulcrum. It has to be what guides us. And trust takes time.”
Despite 20 months of passing time, there are still unvaccinated people grappling with this issue of trust, specifically mistrust, of the medical establishment. I wonder aloud to Abrams if she feels hopeful about the future of vaccine hesitancy. “With vaccine hesitancy I feel intentional,” says Abrams, “Because when it’s about hope, then it may work but it may not. Intention means you don’t stop until it does. And our work is not going to stop until we’ve helped all the people we can help.” It’s precisely this unmistakable ethos that makes Stacey Abrams unstoppable.
