COVID-19 Vaccine Skepticism
August 25, 2020 Bloomberg Philanthropies interviewed several experts including, our Center Director Dr. Lisa Cooper, Linda Goler Blount, CEO of the Black Women’s Health Imperative, and James Hildreth, President of Meharry Medical College, to dig into the history of the science of vaccines and mistreatment of populations of color in research and health care.
Dr. Cooper says, “It’s not up to us, though, to decide whether people should get the vaccine or not. Everyone is going to individually make that determination. But there are some controversies associated with people from one community having access to a vaccine or to treatment before another group of people. Some of that has to do with the perception that maybe some people are being used as guinea pigs or experimented upon and that’s based on history… A lot of people know about the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, where African American men were studied for many years and who had been exposed to syphilis and despite the fact that there was a treatment available, they weren’t given that treatment. Instead, scientists continued to study to them to see what would happen… and frankly, we’ve seen inequities in health care delivery that contribute to this mistrust… but, as scientists, it’s our job to make sure that there is a vaccine and that there are treatments that are safe for people in different groups and the only way we can do this is if everyone is involved in the research.”
To watch the entire interview, click here.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
View the video on the Bloomberg Philanthropies Twitter account
For more of Dr. Cooper’s personal accomplishments