COVID-19 has impacted black communities the most.
One woman’s story on overcoming racial trauma and medical distrust to get the vaccine.
I was in middle school when I first learned of theTuskegee experimentthrough a 1997 film titledMiss Evers Boys.
The studys purpose was to observe the natural history of untreated syphilis in African American men.
The men selected for the study were poor sharecroppers from Macon County, Alabama.
Of the 600 chosen men, 399 had latent syphilis and 201 men were not infected.
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Instead, they were told they were being treated for bad blood.
PHS never informed subjects of their diagnosis and disguised placebos, ineffective methods, and diagnostic procedures as treatment.
Her tissue was given to a researcher without Lackss knowledge or consent.
In the laboratory, her cells turned out to have an extraordinary capacity to survive and reproduce.
The researcher shared them with other scientists, and they became a workhorse of biological research.
Lackss cells have essentially become immortal.
(One of their most recent applications was included in the research for theCOVID-19 vaccine.)
For years, Lackss family did not receive compensation for her cell usage.
None of the biotechnology or other companies that profited from her cells gave any money to the Lacks family.
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I have a great deal of distrust in medicine as a Black woman.
Still, for my family and myself, I decided to vaccinate.
An array of medical, emotional,intergenerational, and racial trauma is present in Black communities.
This is bigger than Tuskegee.
Additionally, a2016 studyfound that white medical students and residents often believed falsehoods about Black people.
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Personally, I live a lifestyle centered on holistic health.
I have a great deal of distrust in medicine as a Black woman.
Still, for my family and myself, I decided to vaccinate.
I want to live, so I got vaccinated, and I have no regrets.
More than 600,000 Americans are dead from COVID-19, and adisproportionate number of them are Black.
I want to live, so I got vaccinated, and I have no regrets.
My mother, Thurselle C. Williams, is one of them.
Initially, when she asked me to get vaccinated with her, I refused.
In fact, for months before, I told her not to ask me because the answer was no.
The day before she was vaccinated, she barged into my room.
Before you have a conversation with your family about the vaccine, remember this.
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