TUSKEGEE, Ala. (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 held unsuspecting African-Americans men used as guinea pigs. in a study of a sexually transmitted disease.
Now the former mayor of the city is immortalized as home to the infamous “Tuskegee syphilis study” is careful to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Among other things, she is suspicious of the government promoting a vaccine that was developed in record time, or that it apparently could not do adequate virus testing or consistently provide quality health care in rural areas.
‘I’m not doing this vaccine at the moment. That does not mean I will never do it. But I know enough to withhold it until we see everything involved, ”said Dunn, who is Black.
The coronavirus immunization campaign is beginning to falter in Tuskegee and other parts of Macon County. Area leaders point to a resistance among residents that is fueled by mistrust in the government’s promises and decades of failed health programs. Many people in this city of 8,500 have family members who were subjected to unethical government experimentation during the syphilis study.
“It does have an impact on decisions. “If I’m in this community and growing up in this community, I’d be very untrue if I did not say so,” said Frank Lee, director of emergency management in Macon County. Lee is black.
Health experts have emphasized the safety and effectiveness of the vaccines. They noted that although the vaccines were developed at a record-breaking speed, they are based on decades of previous research. Vaccinations used in the US have not shown any studies of tens of thousands of people. And with more than 26 million vaccinations administered so far in the U.S. alone, no red flags have been reported.
Tuskegee is not a complete outlier. A recent survey conducted by the communications firm Edelman revealed that as of November 59, only 59% of people in the United States were willing to be vaccinated within a year, with only 33% wanting to do so as soon as possible.
But skepticism seems to run deeper.
When Alabama and the rest of the South were still separated by race, government medical workers who began in 1932 withheld treatment of unsuspecting men infected with syphilis in Tuskegee and surrounding Macon County so doctors could detect the disease. . The study, which involved about 600 men, was only terminated in 1972 after it was published by The Associated Press.
Fred Gray, a lawyer for Black Tuskegee, filed a lawsuit on behalf of the men, leading to 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 goes far beyond Tuskegee: A survey in December showed that 40% of black people nationwide said they would not get the coronavirus vaccine. This hesitation is more entrenched than among white people, although black Americans have been hit excessively hard by the virus.
The Chicago-based black nationalist group Nation of Islam warns members nationwide with an online presentation titled “Beyond Tuskegee: Why Black People Must Not Take The Experimental COVID-19 Vaccine.”
Gray, now 90 and still in law in Tuskegee, rejects such comparisons. The syphilis study and the COVID-19 vaccine are completely different, he said. He believes that enough that he himself got the vaccine and publicly encourages others to do the same.
Georgette Moon is on a similar mission. Hoping to protect herself and encourage brilliant friends, the former city council member recently exposed her and had a public health nurse immunized. Now, Moon said, if only more black residents of their black people could overcome their lingering fears and get the vaccine.
“The study is a big factor,” Moon said. “I have told many qualified, well-educated people that they are not going to use it now.”
The Macon Department of Health, which administers Moderna vaccines in its modern building near the city center, can perform up to 160 vaccinations a day, officials said. However, a maximum of 140 people received the vaccine on a single date during the first six days of appointments, with a total of 527 people being vaccinated during the period. Health workers, emergencies and longtime residents are currently eligible for shots in Alabama, along with people 75 years and older.
There are some signs of hope. State statistics show a slow increase in the number of people entering vaccinations, and the word seems to be filtering through the community that it is okay to be vaccinated.
In the street of the provincial clinic, the Veterans Affairs Hospital in Tuskegee vaccinates veterans aged 65 and older. Although only 40% of VA workers in the area have been vaccinated, officials say, more people agree to the shots than during the initial wave.
“They know people who have had the vaccine, they hear more about it, they become more comfortable with it,” said Dr. April Truett, a physician at the hospital, said.
Rev. John Curry jr. Said he and his wife took the shots after the health department said they could get appointments without a long wait. The pastor of the oldest Black church in the city, Curry, said he encourages congregations to get the vaccine.
Yet he said he also understands the power of persistent mistrust in a city that will forever be linked to the syphilis study, one of the most despicable episodes in U.S. public health history.
“It’s a stain on Tuskegee,” he said. “It depends on people’s minds.”