TUSKEGEE, Alabama (AP) – Lucenia Dunn spent the early days of the coronavirus pandemic encouraging people to wear masks and keep a safe distance from each other in Tuskegee, a mostly black city, where the government once used unsuspecting African American men as guinea pigs in a study of a sexually transmitted disease.
Now, the mayor of the city was immortalized as the home of the famous “study of Tuskegee’s syphilis.” distrusts being inoculated against COVID-19. Among other things, he suspects the government is promoting a vaccine that was developed in record time when it appears it cannot perform adequate virus testing or provide quality rural health care.
“I am not getting this vaccine right now. That doesn’t mean I will never do it. But I know enough to prevent it from happening until we see everything involved, ”said Dunn, who is black.
The coronavirus vaccination campaign begins unstable in Tuskegee and other parts of Macon County. Area leaders point to resistance among residents spurred on by distrust of government promises and decades of failed health programs. Many people in this city of 8,500 have relatives who were subjected to unethical government experiments during the study of syphilis.
“It has an impact on decisions. Being in this community, growing up in this community, would be a big lie if I didn’t say that, ”said Frank Lee, director of emergency management in Macon County. Lee is black.
Health experts have stressed the safety and effectiveness of vaccines. They noted that while vaccines were developed at a record speed, they were based on decades of previous research. Vaccines used in the United States have shown no signs of serious side effects in studies of tens of thousands of people. And with more than 26 million vaccines administered in the United States alone so far, no red flags have been reported.
Tuskegee is not a complete atypical value. A recent survey conducted by communications firm Edelman revealed that as of November, only 59% of the U.S. population was willing to get vaccinated in a year, with only 33% happy to do so as soon as possible.
But skepticism seems to deepen here.
When Alabama and the rest of the South were still racially segregated, government medical workers who began in 1932 withheld treatment of unsuspecting men infected with syphilis in Tuskegee and surrounding Macon County so doctors could track the disease. . The study, which involved about 600 men, was completed in 1972 only after it was revealed by The Associated Press.
A lawsuit filed on behalf of the men by Black Tuskegee attorney Fred Gray resulted in a $ 9 million settlement and then-President Bill Clinton formally apologized on behalf of the U.S. government in 1997. But the damage left a legacy of mistrust that extends far beyond Tuskegee: a December poll showed that 40% of blacks across the country said they would not get the coronavirus vaccine. This hesitation is more ingrained than among whites, although black Americans have been disproportionately affected by the virus.
The Chicago-based black nationalist group Nation of Islam warns members across the country with an online presentation titled “Beyond Tuskegee: Why Black People Must Not Take The Experimental COVID-19 Vaccine.”
Gray, now 90 and still practicing law at Tuskegee, rejects these comparisons. The study of syphilis and the COVID-19 vaccine are completely different, he said. He believes it is enough to get the vaccine for himself and is publicly encouraging other people to do the same.
Georgette Moon has a similar mission. Hoping to protect herself and encourage friendly friends, the former city council member recently uncovered an arm and let a public health nurse vaccinate her. Now, Moon said, if only more black residents could overcome their persistent fears and get the vaccine.
“The study is a huge factor,” Moon said. “I’ve had very skilled and well-mannered people tell me they won’t take it now.”
The Macon County Health Department, which administers Modern Vaccines in two steps in its modern building near the city center, could make up to 160 vaccines a day, officials said. But a maximum of 140 people received the vaccine on any date during the first six days of appointments, with a total of 527 people vaccinated during the period. Currently, health care workers, emergency care professionals, and long-term care residents are eligible to receive shots in Alabama, along with people 75 years of age or older.
There are signs of hope. State statistics show a slow rise in the number of people coming to get vaccinated and it seems that the community is filtering through the vaccine.
On the street of the county clinic, Tuskegee Veterans Affairs Hospital vaccinates veterans age 65 and older. Although only 40% of VA workers in the area have been vaccinated, according to officials, more people agree with the shots than during the initial wave.
“They know the people who have had the vaccine, they know more about it, they feel more comfortable with it,” said Dr. April Truett, an infectious disease doctor at the hospital.
The Rev. John Curry Jr. he said he and his wife fired the shots after the health department said they could get appointments without a long wait. Curry, the pastor of the city’s oldest black church, said he encourages congregants to get the vaccine.
Still, he said he also understands the power of persistent mistrust in a city that will forever be tied to the study of syphilis, one of the most insulting episodes in U.S. public health history.
“It’s a stain on Tuskegee,” he said. “It hangs in people’s minds.”