Monique M. Chism, Ph.D

Hello, my name is Monique Chism and I am the Under Secretary for Education here at the Smithsonian. Thank you so much for taking a little bit of time to listen to my vaccination story. I wanted to share this with you because I am a person who was really skeptical about getting vaccinated. 
I had concerns because there is a known history of distrust between the United States government and the African American Community, specifically the Tuskegee experiment. I also had concerns about how scientists were able to develop the vaccination so quickly when I know that vaccination development takes years. I had concerns about the impact on my health, like I might not get vaccinated because there were so many unanswered questions.

I actually had an opportunity in February to listen to a webinar that was hosted by the NAACP and in this webinar they brought together scientists and researchers and doctors to talk about the vaccination and they explained a lot of the questions that I had they talked about the science behind the development of the vaccination. The history of the research and the decades of research that they've been doing that led them to move very quickly around this new innovation to develop the vaccination. They also talked about the potential side effects and what they had learned from the trials and what that meant for being assured. of some of the outcomes and the impact of the vaccination. So I'm happy to say that in an April I went ahead and I decided to get vaccinated. I had very few side effects, some tiredness, some soreness in my arm, but nothing that was overwhelming and I got my second shot in May and everything has been fine since then. It's given me actually more confidence as I'm out and interacting in the public and moving back into spaces where there are a lot of people. So I do encourage you to take some time to get the questions that you have answered. You know, talk to your primary care physician or reach out to family members who have been vaccinated or take some time to review the resources that are available through this message and also on our website here at the Smithsonian vaccines and us. But I do encourage you that if you are eligible to get vaccinated that you do get vaccinated.

Thank you so much for taking time to listen to this message. I appreciate your time.