On June 11, the Recording Academy and the Department of Health and Human Services partnered on a We Can Do This LIVE Twitter Spaces discussion on vaccines, safety, and a return to live music. The Recording Academy’s Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer Valeisha Butterfield Jones hosted the event, which also featured White House Senior Policy Advisor for COVID-19 Equity Dr. Cameron Webb, who represented the Biden Administration.
As part of Black Music Month and the White House’s Month of Action in June, this event was geared specifically to Black Americans with a focus on the under-40 demographic. The goal was to host an open forum offering authentic and transparent expertise, personal perspective, and highlight a path forward to resume live music following nearly 18 months of shuttered venues and canceled tours.
The panel focused on the positive side of vaccines and their role in getting “back to normal,” particularly when it comes to live music—vaccines are the best way to defeat the virus and get back to safely attending concerts, gathering with family and friends, indoor dining, weddings, sporting events, and travel. Webb, who treated COVID-19 patients throughout the pandemic, broke down in layman’s terms the science behind the vaccines, how they work, what they do inside your body, and their effectiveness in combatting the virus.
Webb also acknowledged, without judgment, many Black Americans’ trepidation about getting the shot, especially with still-fresh memories of experimental medical procedures inflicted on these communities throughout American history. (To say nothing of the fact that COVID-19 disproportionately affected people of color.)
“The scars of that are very visible, and there are contemporary injustices in places all over this country,” Webb noted, citing racist atrocities like the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, which withheld lifesaving treatment for Black men. “I want to be very clear: People are right to say, ‘Hey, it hasn’t been fair for Black bodies here in the United States when it comes to health.’ That is a verifiable truth.”
As people are traveling and gathering indoors for the holidays, recent data has confirmed the fears of public health experts: California and the Bay Area are seeing a sharp rise in coronavirus cases, positivity rates and hospitalizations.
Thank you for joining us during the Juneteenth Soul Festival. Check out the recap. Thanks again to all who helped make the event possible.
COVID-19 has become deadlier for Black Californians since the widespread availability of vaccinations, and vaccine hesitancy could be among the reasons why. People of other races, who have higher vaccination rates, have seen death rates rise, but not as dramatically.
