Coronavirus vaccine choices impacted by nation's racial history, Tuskegee study
Will we still be the UNITED States of America after the threat of COVID 19 has passed? We have not seemed UNITED when centuries of social neglect have caused African Americans to die from COVID 19 at a rate that greatly exceeds our percentage of the national population. It is disheartening to discover that in my hometown of Chicago, African Americans are about 32% of the population, but they account for 72% of the deaths associated with COVID 19. That same pattern appears in states across the country. Jocelyn Wilder, a doctoral student at the University of Illinois School of Public Health, noted in the Chicago Tribune that we should “attribute the difference in mortality and infection rates to socioeconomic factors that preceded the epidemic.”[1]
We do not seem UNITED when higher rates of high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, asthma, and heart disease make African Americans more susceptible to being impacted by and dying from this virus. Living in poverty, not having access to affordable health care, not having access to fresh meats and vegetables, and being reliant on public transportation that makes social distancing impossible are major contributors to these higher rates of infection and death. In Chicago, the Chicago Tribune reports that “food and pharmacy deserts are concentrated on the South side (where I was born and raised), and eight of the ten ZIP codes with the highest percentage of people without cars are on the South and West sides (which are largely African American communities).[2]
We do not seem UNITED when this nation’s centuries-long history of racism has resulted in overcrowded housing, low-paying jobs, limited access to preventive health care, and an economic position that forces too many African Americans to use emergency room services as their primary source of medical care. We get sicker more easily because of these pre-existing and underlying conditions referred to as co-morbidity. We may die from COVID 19, but we were made more vulnerable to the effects of the virus because of so many existing health problems that allowed the disease to take hold of our bodies with more deadly results.
We do not seem UNITED when New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said during one of his daily news briefings about the impact of COVID 19 in his state, ”It always seems that the poorest people end up paying the highest price. Why is that?”[3]
Why, indeed? This is the richest nation on earth in terms of economic capacity, technological capacity, medical research and resources capacity, higher education capacity, and military capacity. Nevertheless, we remain a nation deeply divided along lines of race, region, religion, and especially along lines of resources. Poverty is one of the great evils gripping our nation despite its great wealth. Like a scene out of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, it is the best of times for some Americans and the worst of times for others.
One last problem has arisen that further divides us as a nation, and that is the rate at which African Americans are agreeing to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Bad enough that we are more susceptible to this virus resulting in increased rate of infection, hospitalization, and mortality. Worse than all that is the unwillingness of some people to protect themselves from a virus that has painted a bullseye on our back. White Americans are being vaccinated at twice the rate of African Americans even though we are twice as likely to contract COVID-19.
Some persons may harbor suspicions about the safety of the vaccine or the speed with which it was developed. Some people may not trust a medical/research system that conducted the Tuskegee Experiment from 1932-1972 when 400 African American men who had syphilis went untreated so scientists could document the terrible effects of that disease on their bodies. The difference is that the Tuskegee Experiment was about medical help that was being denied to black bodies. Refusal to be vaccinated against COVID-19 is about medicines that black people are denying to themselves. In more ways than one, our Union is a victim of COVID-19, and there is a lot of blame to go around.
The Rev. Marvin A. McMickle, pastor emeritus of Antioch Baptist Church in Cleveland, retired in 2019 as president of Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School in Rochester, New York, where he had served since 2011.
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[1] Nausheen Husain and Cecelia Reyes, “As Chicago blacks die from COVID 19, communities of color knew recovery from COVID 19 would be slow”, ChicagoTribune.com, April 21, 2000.
[2] Nausheen Husain and Cecelia Reyes, Chicago Tribune.
[3] Cuomo vows to investigate racial disparities in COVID-19 deaths: “Why do the poorest people always pay the highest price?”, TheHill.com, April 8, 2020.
