The distrust was everywhere, recalls Robert Drummond, M.D., Ph.D. ’12. It was in the voices of patients, on social media, on the radio, even in comments from family members. People didn’t understand the COVID-19 pandemic, and they were suspicious of the vaccine.

“In the Black community especially, there is a long history of distrust, of racism in medicine that still exists to this day,” says Drummond, a regional lead physician and director of laboratories at Optum, a medical group in Los Angeles. “The Black community was really adamant: We are not taking this vaccine, we don’t know what’s going on, we are not doing anything.”

So Drummond reached out, speaking conversationally to an Instagram audience peppering him with questions. He explained how researchers were able to identify variants, why people could have the virus but be asymptomatic, how vaccine studies work, and a host of other topics. As the pandemic wore on, he consulted on public outreach for Pfizer and Moderna, was interviewed by NPR, gave statements on behalf of the California Department of Health, and partnered with BET and CBS to coordinate COVID-19 webinars featuring Black physicians. Thousands viewed his Instagram videos.

“If you can’t explain it to the department chair, the CEO of the hospital, and the janitorial staff, you don’t really know it,” he says, noting that he read hundreds of papers to ensure he was conveying accurate information and strove to be apolitical. “When you have the knowledge and can answer intelligently, not speak over individuals’ heads or be condescending, those are the things people really latch onto.”

Drummond is accustomed to jumping into the action. As a student in the Cellular and Molecular Medicine program, he threw himself into diversity recruiting for the M.D./Ph.D program, traveling to conferences and historically black colleges and universities to recruit underrepresented students, efforts that earned him the 2010 Johns Hopkins University Diversity Award. He also served two years on the admissions committee for the M.D./Ph.D. program. Today, he continues to reach out to prospective students. In 2022, he was honored with a Distinguished Medical Alumni Award by the Johns Hopkins Medical and Surgical Association.

Drummond hopes to transition his COVID-19 outreach into overall explorations of health. “This is a huge opportunity to talk to people about maintaining a healthy lifestyle,” he says. “I want to be one of those trusted voices in medicine, where people think, ‘I believe him; he has my best interests in mind.’”