Using PEN-3 to Evaluate the Effectiveness of the CDC’s COVID-19 Vaccine Communication Toolkit for Community-Based Organizations on Promoting Clinical Trials for African Americans

The lack of diversity and inclusion continues in vaccine clinical trials. Despite African Americans being unknowingly and unethically used in the development of lifesaving vaccines, there remains a widespread underrepresentation of Black people in vaccine research. In addition, the history of medical racism has created a tumultuous environment for Black patients, where the disproportionate spread of illnesses associated with COVID-19 continues to reiterate that healthcare continues to be a segregated privilege that is tightly linked to institutional racism. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published its COVID-19 Communication Toolkit for Community-Based Organizations in 2020 to help organizations communicate information about the COVID-19 vaccine while addressing community concerns. Utilizing Critical Race Theory and the PEN-3 Cultural Model (PEN-3), this study found that the resources in the toolkit primarily used community-based framing to increase vaccine uptake and used diverse people in its visual communication and marketing resources. However, the toolkit failed to specifically address the nonexistence of African Americans in clinical trial research, the history of medical racism or provide educational information about COVID-19.