♪ ♪ ♪ >> Amidst the national debate about pediatric vaccinations, we're pleased to have one of the leading authorities on medicine for children, Dr. Yolanda Lewis-Ragland, next on "The Chavis Chronicles."

>> Major funding for "The Chavis Chronicles" is provided by... Reynolds American, dedicated to building a better tomorrow for our employees and communities.

Reynolds stands against racism and discrimination in all forms and is committed to building a more diverse and inclusive workplace.

American Petroleum Institute -- through the core elements of API's Energy Excellence Program, our members are committed to accelerating safety, environmental and sustainability progress throughout the natural-gas and oil industry in the U.S. and around the world.

You can learn more at api.org/apiEnergyExcellence.

Over the next 10 years, Comcast is committing $1 billion to reach 50 million low-income Americans with the tools and resources they need to be ready for anything.

♪ ♪ >> Dr. Yolanda Lewis-Ragland, welcome to "The Chavis Chronicles."

>> Thank you so much.

Thank you for having me.

>> So, first, tell us where are you actually from?

You say you're a native of D.C.?

>> I am from Washington, D.C., born and raised, and we left when I was young, about 6 or 7, and moved all the way to Seattle, Washington.

>> The other Washington.

>> The other Washington.

So, I grew up in Washington state, in Seattle, Washington, and then I came back here for medical school.

>> You've had a distinguished medical career.

Tell us about your journey.

What led you to go into medicine?

>> Interesting story -- for me, my mother actually was interested in nursing.

She didn't tell me this early on, but I was a very curious young person -- I had three older brothers -- and just wasn't afraid of anything.

And so, growing up with boys, they took everything apart.

You know, the things that most girls were afraid of -- insects and just things that were supposedly kind of disgusting, I was drawn to because I had three older brothers, and if they could do it, I could do it better.

And if they were gonna climb a tree, I was gonna go higher.

So, got into just about everything.

And then science was very interesting to me, and I think it was my seventh-grade year that we dissected cows' eyes, and no one wanted to do them other than me.

So, I had 20 in front of me, and I dissected all 20 cows' eyes and decided I was definitely into biology.

At that point, just didn't know what I was gonna do with it.

And as much as people talk about television and the influence of television, I was a latchkey kid.

And so, I saw a few people on TV that were physicians.

I'm dating myself, but Marcus Welby, Quincy, Cosby, all of those people.

And so, I really decided then that I wanted to go into medicine.

>> And over 20 years... >> Mm-hmm.

>> ...you've been one of our nation's leading pediatricians.

Tell us exactly what you're doing now in Washington.

You also have your own foundation.

>> I do.

So, I have a nonprofit.

It's Dr. Yolanda Cares Foundation.

One of the reasons I am here in the District of Columbia is because our nation's capital, unlike what most people think of third-world countries need a lot of help, right?

I did a Peace Corps.

I was a Peace Corps volunteer.

So, I went overseas to help people and came back.

>> In Africa.

I saw you worked in Africa.

>> In Africa, yeah, in West Africa, and came back and thought, "We don't have to go very far to see that there are a lot of health disparities, a lot of communities in need, a lot of communities that need that grassroots outreach."

And I decided I wanted to not just help serve in a community, but, like my Peace Corps days, I wanted to live in the community.

So, I decided very, you know, to stay in Ward 8 of Washington, D.C.

I feel that when I hear the same sirens that my families hear at night, when I'm also affected by the poor food choices in the grocery stores, when I'm affected by the torn-up streets, then I'm gonna be more sympathetic, more passionate, and understanding about what it is that they actually need.

And so, that was one of the reasons for me.

My passion is to be right here, in this nation's capital but also in Ward 8 of Washington, D.C. >> Voltaire once said, "You can evaluate a people by how they treat their children."

You're a pediatrician.

A lot is going on with children in America today, particularly African-American children and other children from communities of color.

You mentioned all the disparities.

This is even before COVID-19.

But certainly COVID-19 has exposed some of those preexisting disparities.

How well are we making sure that the health of our children across the board, across racial lines, are treated?

>> I think that we are -- if I could grade us, I would give us probably a "D" at this point.

Our children are suffering in so many ways for various reasons.

When we talk about health and health disparities, our children, especially in cities like Washington, D.C., and in these vulnerable communities, are suffering from obesity.

They're suffering from diabetes, hypertension, stress, anxiety.

We aren't -- I will say that with the idea of Medicaid and insurance for our children, that's probably the best thing.

It's probably the only reason we're not getting an "F" is because we are insuring our children, but our access to care is extremely poor.

Right in Ward 8, we have a mental-health disparity -- right?

-- of mental health.

Basically, we don't have enough mental-health specialists.

We don't have enough oral-health specialists.

>> Now, Ward 8 is the ward of D.C. where you have the underserved communities.

>> Completely.

Highest -- it's about 97% African-American.

And it has the highest teen pregnancy, the highest high-school-dropout rate, unemployment, violence.

>> All in the same ward.

>> All in the same ward, and it actually has one of the highest populations of children.

And many of those children are in the foster-care system, as well.

And so, what we are doing right for our children, as I said, is insurance.

We recognize that children are not just little adults.

So, we recognize that in pediatrics, we have to give specific care to children.

I think one of the reasons I work for Children's National Medical Center is because we are one of the leading hospitals for taking care of children.

But, obviously, we need to do better.

And like I said, the things that we are suffering from are not just health disparities.

When it comes to education and housing, this is where the intersection is.

If children don't have great housing, many of them are suffering from asthma and other respiratory illnesses.

If they're in shelters, also, they're suffering from these respiratory diseases.

For education, as well, we have our children who in certain school programs, they're depending solely on the school for their food and for food sources.

>> Nutrition.

>> Nutrition.

So, we have programs like SNAP.

We have programs like WIC.

And so, the fact that we have these subsidized programs are very helpful for our children, but we still have a long ways to go.

>> You're an authority, also, on pediatric vaccinations.

I'm not just talking about COVID vaccinations.

I'm talking about overall.

Surprisingly, states like Tennessee, there's a governor down there, and other Southern governors who are somewhat opposed to immunizing children.

Where does this come from, Dr. Yolanda?

I thought that the whole purpose of vaccinating is to protect one from disease, protect one from mental-health disorders.

Talk to us about, from your informed and knowledgeable perspective, the importance of vaccinations for the public at large, but particularly for children.

>> Well, absolutely.

So, first of all, vaccines are extremely important for public-health safety.

The transmission rates for any disease, mostly viral illnesses, but some bacterial illnesses, are much lower transmission rates when you have more people vaccinated.

We're not gonna go into what people really think herd immunity is because if you have enough people vaccinated, then others think they don't need to be vaccinated.

It's a very high number of individuals that need to be vaccinated for that to be the case.

Most of these schools, and even in Southern states, it's interesting because it seems to be a new phenomenon, because prior to now, these vaccines were mandated in order for children to go to school.

>> Like measles.

>> Measles, varicella, Tdap, tetanus.

>> Polio.

>> Polio.

Polio is one of those things that most people think is gone.

Now, I will tell you, if you do enough traveling -- I was in the Peace Corps.

I lived in West Africa for 2 1/2 years.

It's everywhere because they don't have the vaccine.

People in America seem to think we don't have to worry about polio anymore.

But if you actually look at your history, just a few presidents ago, we had a president in the White House who suffered from polio.

So, this is not a disease that's gone.

The six most common, deadly viruses right now, illnesses that we need to be vaccinated against -- the first is varicella.

When I was a kid, they put us together so we could all get chicken pox together.

Varicella is what causes chicken pox.

But the problem with chicken pox is it can cause very serious bacterial infections, as well as pneumonia.

And so -- and children die from that pneumonia.

They don't just get a little sick.

The problem is, these are little children, little bodies, little lungs, and their capacity is much less than ours.

So, varicella is one that causes illnesses and death.

RSV -- I'm sorry, not RSV.

Rotavirus -- rotavirus, which is not RSV, but rotavirus causes diarrhea in little children and infants.

And it's such a harsh and serious diarrhea that they actually get dehydrated and die.

So, we're vaccinating against rotavirus.

One of the ones that's very interesting is meningitis.

We're vaccinating against meningitis, mostly in the preteen age, and I have a very personal story with meningitis because one of my classmates in medical school is currently a pediatrician, but he is a double amputee below the knee because he contracted meningitis in 1997.

CDC did not mandate the Menactra, or the meningitis, vaccine until 1993.

So, between '93 and '95, it was sort of rolling out to become a mandate, but we had already entered medical school in '95, '96.

So, in '97, he was struck with meningitis and lost both of his legs below the knee.

This is a man who is now practicing pediatrics in the Baltimore area.

Hepatitis A -- hepatitis A is still a very serious disease that causes acute liver disease, and it looks just like hepatitis, but it's caused by a virus -- jaundice, stomach pains, illness, fatigue.

And the last one is Tdap, which causes diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, that whooping cough.

So, these are the six probably highest, most common that no matter what age you are, we need to be vaccinating you.

>> Right.

Most school districts require some type of vaccination for children.

And I know, as a pediatrician, you give advice and counsel to parents that have newborns.

What has happened in our nation?

Why have vaccinations become political?

>> Well, I was gonna say the one problem is it's become politicized.

We have parties who somehow have decided that we are now infringing on rights, and we're infringing on freedoms when we are asking people to vaccinate.

But it seems to be, to me, a little preposterous.

We were already -- this is a public-health issue, right?

So, if we're talking about public health, one of the things that you need to do is, you need to protect the entire community.

>> Exactly.

>> When we're talking about entire communities -- those things that are highly transmissible, those things that can cause lots of morbidity and mortality in our children -- then, as parents and as the adults in the room, you would think that we'd want to protect those children from harms, especially from death.

It's like in a car, you have the airbag.

The airbag, when it deploys, is gonna stop you from seriously injuring yourself or dying, because if it's not there, you get into this accident, anyway.

You might die or seriously injure yourself.

Well, that's fine.

We don't want that.

So, we put airbags into cars.

It's not stopping accidents.

When people say, "You may still get COVID," or "You may still get varicella" or "You may still get..." that's all true.

But you're not gonna get seriously injured, or you're not gonna die.

When we're talking about things like masks that we know are highly effective -- if you get an N95 mask, it's about 87% protective against the virus.

So, that's like having that seat belt on.

It's gonna actually keep you more safe than -- it's not fully gonna save your life, but you're less likely to die from impact because you have that seat belt on.

The social distancing is a lot like traffic lights.

It's keeping all the order, keeping people from running into each other.

So, we have to use all of these measures.

But this is a new thing.

We're not sure why it's politicized.

We wish it weren't politicized, but the problem with politicizing it is it's killing our children.

It's affecting our children.

One of the reasons I went into pediatrics, truly, is, as much as I like adults, I love children.

And most adults will do for their children what they won't do for themselves.

So, that adult that you say, "Hey, I think you have this going on.

This is the medication.

This is the treatment."

I have a lot of friends that are internal-medicine docs that are frustrated because their patients won't take these medications.

They won't follow their advice.

And I tell them, as a pediatrician, I don't have that problem as much, because if a parent comes in, and I say, "Your child has an ear infection, and this is what you need to get," they're there right away.

They're calling me at the pharmacy.

"They don't have my medicine.

Did you call..." You know.

So, they're gonna do for their children what they usually don't do for themselves.

But all of a sudden, with this new politicization of vaccines -- >> I've seen people fighting at school-board meetings, chasing school-board members out of the board meeting because the school board had mandated masks.

>> And that's a simple -- >> Simple thing -- wearing a mask to protect oneself from the virus.

>> Simple measures -- simple measures that do not infringe on anyone's rights.

Again, if you don't want to wear one, then don't go to the school.

It's like, you know, when -- here it is.

Prior to the COVID vaccine, you had parents who didn't want their children to get vaccinated, and I would always offer my advice.

It's okay for you not to vaccinate your child.

But what you can also do is homeschool your child, because, at this point, if you're deciding not to vaccinate your child, you're actually not just endangering your child, but you're endangering the other children in the school, especially children who are immunocompromised or who live with someone who's immunocompromised.

We have multigenerational homes.

These children live with their grandparents.

They live with a mother who has breast cancer who might be on chemo.

They have all kinds of family situations that we don't know about, and so, our job, as administrators, as pediatricians, as, again, the grown-ups in the room, is to protect these children and help them be as clean a vessel as they could possibly be when they do return home so that they're not endangering those that they might be living with because we all have elders that we're caring for, as well as our children.

>> As a pediatrician, what is your perspective about pediatric vaccinations for COVID?

>> We've been doing this -- vaccinating and saving millions of children's lives.

We have something called the Vaccine Adverse Episode Reporting System, and we know -- >> It's current.

>> VAERS, right.

And we know that anytime something happens, if there's any adverse effect, we report to this system all the time.

As a pediatrician, I'm very commonly reporting if there's anything that a parent reports, a child reports, a coach reports.

We're always reporting.

So, this is a current system, but we've been using this system for a hundred years now.

And so, this is, again -- >> The system has worked.

>> Worked extremely well.

>> Like you said, it saved millions of lives.

>> Saved millions of lives.

>> Millions of children.

>> Millions of children's lives and made all of our schools safe, our communities safe.

And so, there's no reason for us to doubt it now.

>> So, I know Dr. James Hildreth.

He's on one of the independent FDA panels.

He's the distinguished professor of medicine, physician, the president of Meharry Medical College in Nashville.

And he recently said, also, that, you know, they don't flippantly approve vaccines.

It goes through a very tedious, very... >> Stringent, mm-hmm.

>> ...stringent process... >> Mm-hmm.

>> ...before they make a recommendation for the American public.

Do you see an inclination that people are getting a better grasp of the importance of vaccination, or do you think things are somewhat stalemated?

>> I do think we're actually improving, but I think one of the reasons we're improving is because we are recognizing that the messenger is as important as the message, right?

So, many people listen and hear Dr. Anthony Fauci, which I believe is a very admirable, knowledgeable person.

But what happens is, if you don't have a relationship with someone, if you're not already within their community... >> Mm-hmm.

>> ...it's very easy to be skeptical of what you're telling me.

"You're selling me a bill of goods.

This must be putting money in your pocket."

You know, especially because there's a lot of misinformation, disinformation, a lot of conspiracy theories about doctors being paid for how many COVID cases were coming through their hospitals.

Just there's all of this stuff that we were wading through.

In fact, there's a book I had written, and we have some -- we had 15 healthcare workers.

>> What's the name of your book?

>> "Navigating a Triple Pandemic: Healthcare Workers of Color Confront."

The three pandemics are "Racism in America, Health Disparities in Medicine, and the Trauma of COVID-19."

And the second volume is about "COVID Virus and Vaccine Facts, Fiction, and Fears."

And we did actually a study, and it's being published in the National Medical Association's Journal, and we had five of the top reasons for hesitancy in our communities.

And it was the misinformation.

It was the negative coverage about the vaccine in the news.

One of the top ones, and rightfully so, was not understanding the rapid development of the vaccine and so, needing more, you know, probably clarity there.

But some of it was just that, you know, community members didn't understand, and they didn't have anyone to talk to them directly.

So, one of the reasons that's very important is we need to have physicians of color having conversations, having personal relationships.

I get almost all of my vaccines successfully done because the parent is able to ask me a very specific question, and I'm having conversations about them.

The kids are telling me what they're seeing on TikTok or what they saw that someone said on the Internet, or their brother's friend's sister, you know, thinks this.

And so, I'll have a very specific conversation, and I have an extremely successful rate, at least in my clinic, with my patients who get vaccinated, whose parents get vaccinated.

We actually vaccinate our parents on-site.

If they come in, and they bring a child for a visit, that child is getting a vaccine.

We ask the parent right there, "Do you want to be vaccinated against COVID?"

We lead by example.

>> Mm-hmm.

>> And so many of our parents will actually get vaccinated right there.

So, I believe we are going in the right direction, but I think most of it is because we're starting to employ the resources of black and brown communities of the voices of the physicians.

You're seeing -- you know, you see Kizzy Corbett get on with town halls.

>> Right.

>> You see -- >> She was the physician that helped develop the science... >> For Moderna.

>> ...for both Moderna and Pfizer.

>> Mm-hmm, absolutely, absolutely.

When those individuals are seen having conversations in their communities, then there's gonna be a positive reception, and I believe that we are going in the right direction.

>> You think that eventually we will be able to arrest this pandemic, this virus and the various variants that seem to be disproportionately impacting communities of color?

>> Once people stop in-fighting and really start accepting the science, I believe that they'll go down the right road.

I do believe that as we're doing young people and children, and, believe me, that 5-and-11-year-old, that's gonna happen.

And then we're gonna start looking at that 6-month to 5-year-old.

Once we actually start and are able to do young people -- and they're gonna lead us.

I'm gonna say this right now.

I have patients who come in.

They want to play soccer.

They want to get involved in things.

So, they have to get vaccinated.

They're coming in and saying, "Mom, I don't know how you feel about this, but I have to get vaccinated.

I want to be in my classroom."

Or "I want to be on this sport."

And now the parents are being vaccinated behind them.

So, I think honestly our children are gonna lead us.

>> But it's said, "Some point, the children shall lead."

>> And I believe that that's exactly what's gonna happen with this vaccine.

>> We just want to make sure that our children are healthy and safe.

>> Healthy, absolutely.

>> And your work as a pediatrician, your work as a researcher, your work as a practitioner is well-appreciated.

>> Thank you very much.

>> Dr. Yolanda Lewis-Ragland, thank you for joining "The Chavis Chronicles."

>> Thank you for having me.

>> Major funding for "The Chavis Chronicles" is provided by... Reynolds American, dedicated to building a better tomorrow for our employees and communities.

Reynolds stands against racism and discrimination in all forms and is committed to building a more diverse and inclusive workplace.

American Petroleum Institute -- through the core elements of API's Energy Excellence Program, our members are committed to accelerating safety, environmental and sustainability progress throughout the natural-gas and oil industry in the U.S. and around the world.

You can learn more at api.org/apiEnergyExcellence.

Over the next 10 years, Comcast is committing $1 billion to reach 50 million low-income Americans with the tools and resources they need to be ready for anything.

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