TUSKEGEE, Alabama (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 predominantly black city where the government used to use unsuspecting African Americans as guinea pigs in a study of a sexually transmitted disease.
Now the ex-mayor of the city immortalized as home to the infamous “study of Tuskegee syphilis” is afraid of being vaccinated against COVID-19. Among other things, she suspects that the government promotes a vaccine that was developed in record time, when it appears that it is unable to carry out adequate virus tests or provide a quality rural health system consistently.
“I’m not getting this vaccine right now. This does not mean that I will never do that. But I know enough not to get paid until we see everything that is involved, ”said Dunn, who is Black.
The coronavirus immunization campaign had an unstable start in Tuskegee and elsewhere in Macon County. Area leaders point to resistance among residents fueled by distrust of government promises and decades of failed health programs. Many people in this city of 8,500 inhabitants have relatives who were subjected to unethical government experiments while studying syphilis.
“It has an impact on decisions. Being in this community, growing up in this community, I would be quite a liar if I didn’t say that, ”said Frank Lee, director of emergency management in Macon County. Lee is black.
Health experts emphasize the safety and efficacy of vaccines. They noted that while vaccines were developed at record speed, they were based on decades of previous research. Vaccines used in the United States have shown no signs of serious side effects in studies of tens of thousands of people. And with more than 26 million vaccines administered in the United States alone so far, no red flags have been reported.
Tuskegee is not a complete outlier. Recent research conducted by communications company Edelman revealed that, as of November, only 59% of people in the U.S. were willing to be vaccinated in one year, with only 33% happy to do so as soon as possible.
But skepticism seems to be more profound here.
When Alabama and the rest of the South were still segregated by race, medical government officials, starting in 1932, suspended treatment for innocent men infected with syphilis in Tuskegee and around Macon County so that doctors could track the disease . The study, which involved about 600 men, ended in 1972 only after it was revealed by the Associated Press.
A lawsuit filed on behalf of the men by Black Tuskegee’s lawyer, Fred Gray, resulted in a $ 9 million settlement, and then President Bill Clinton formally apologized on behalf of the US government in 1997. But the damage left a legacy of mistrust that extends far beyond Tuskegee: A December poll showed that 40% of blacks across the country said they would not get the coronavirus vaccine. This hesitation is more ingrained than among whites, although black Americans have been disproportionately hit by the virus.
The black nationalist group Nation of Islam, based in Chicago, is alerting members across the country with an online presentation entitled “Beyond Tuskegee: Why Blacks Shouldn’t Get the Experimental Vaccine COVID-19”.
Gray, now 90 and still practicing law at Tuskegee, rejects such comparisons. The study of syphilis and the COVID-19 vaccine are completely different, he said. He believes that he himself got the vaccine and is publicly encouraging others to do the same.
Georgette Moon is on a similar mission. Hoping to protect herself and encourage nervous friends, the former councilwoman recently discovered an arm and let a public health nurse immunize her. Now, Moon said, if only more black residents could overcome their lingering fears and get the vaccine.
“The study is a huge factor,” said Moon. “I had very qualified and well-educated people telling me that I would not accept it now.”
The Macon County Health Department, which is administering Modern vaccines in two stages in its modern building near the city center, can carry out up to 160 immunizations per day, officials said. However, a maximum of 140 people received the vaccine on a single date during the first six days of consultations, with a total of 527 people immunized in the period. Health care professionals, emergency responders and long-term residents are currently eligible for vaccinations in Alabama, along with people aged 75 and over.
There are some signs of hope. State statistics show a slow increase in the number of people coming for vaccination, and it seems that the community is spreading rumors that it is okay to be vaccinated.
Just down the street from the county clinic, Veterans Affairs hospital in Tuskegee is vaccinating veterans 65 and older. Although only 40% of VA workers in the area have been vaccinated, officials said, more people are agreeing to the vaccines than during the initial wave.
“They know people who got the vaccine, they hear more about it, they get more comfortable with it,” said Dr. April Truett, an infectious doctor at the hospital.
Rev. John Curry Jr. said he and his wife had the vaccines 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 is encouraging the faithful to get the vaccine.
Still, he said he also understands the power of persistent distrust in a city that will forever be linked to the study of syphilis, one of the most insulting episodes in the history of public health in the United States.
“It’s a stain on Tuskegee,” he said. “It gets on people’s minds.”