Race and U.S. medical experimentation: the case of Tuskegee

Abstract

Race and U.S. medical experimentation: the case of TuskegeeRaça e experimentação médica nos Estados Unidos: o caso de Tuskegee Raza y experimentación médica en los Estados Unidos: el caso de Tuskegee

Barriers to COVID-19 Vaccines and Strategies to Improve Acceptability and Uptake

“…African Americans (AA) account for 13% of the USA population and 21% of deaths from COVID-19, but constitute only 3% of vaccine trials enrollees prior to this pandemic. 17 This lack of trust is deeply rooted to racial exploitation which can be attributed to the Tuskegee Study of 1932, where AA men with latent syphilis were told they would be treated for “bad blood.” 18 However, the researchers gave them placebos and convinced other practitioners not to treat them so that they could track the full progression of the disease. These AA men, deprived of treatment, began to go blind, insane, and many of them died as a result.…”

Equity of African American Men in Headache in the United States: A Perspective From African American Headache Medicine Specialists (Part 1)

“…31 It has been postulated that this experiment and several others carried out on AA men are also symbolic, and possibly causal, of continued distrust of the health care system by AA men, who are less likely to engage in preventive care, enroll in clinical trials, follow physicians' advice, or become organ donors and may contribute to observed racial health disparities. 31 In addition to the mistrust that may arise from the history of these studies, other findings suggest that the difference in trust by race is more likely due to broader historical and personal experience. 32 This may be exacerbated in headache medicine by the challenge of a lower number of headache subspecialists being available and the processes and resources required to receive headache subspecialty care (referral, travel, cost, etc.).…”

“…In fact, the U.S. PHS went to great lengths to keep treatment from AA men. This experiment stands as an example of how structural and systemic racism allowed perpetuation of the study for 40 years 31 . It has been postulated that this experiment and several others carried out on AA men are also symbolic, and possibly causal, of continued distrust of the health care system by AA men, who are less likely to engage in preventive care, enroll in clinical trials, follow physicians' advice, or become organ donors and may contribute to observed racial health disparities 31 .…”

“…This experiment stands as an example of how structural and systemic racism allowed perpetuation of the study for 40 years 31 . It has been postulated that this experiment and several others carried out on AA men are also symbolic, and possibly causal, of continued distrust of the health care system by AA men, who are less likely to engage in preventive care, enroll in clinical trials, follow physicians' advice, or become organ donors and may contribute to observed racial health disparities 31 . In addition to the mistrust that may arise from the history of these studies, other findings suggest that the difference in trust by race is more likely due to broader historical and personal experience 32 .…”

Confronting Racism in All Forms of Pain Research: A Shared Commitment for Engagement, Diversity, and Dissemination

“…Despite the fallacy of "race neutrality", racist policies continue to impact every system in society, including scientific inquiry. Science has its own shameful history of overt racism, like the Eugenics Movements in both the USA and Europe that later fueled the genocides of Jewish and Romani people in Nazi Germany 76 and "The Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male 19,71 ," an enduring example of unethical research conduct resulting in intergenerational harm to Black men in the USA and their families 113 . Examples of contemporary scientific racism, such as research that ties racialized disparities in COVID-19 burden to gene expression 22 continue to pathologize Blackness.…”