# Is Tuskegee really a reason for black Americans to not get the Covid vaccine? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 7, 2021, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-tuskegee-really-a-reason-for-black-americans-to-not-get-the-covid-vaccine/950195 "2021-09-07T01:44:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ralfy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ralfy/32/600_2.png) [@ralfy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralfy)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2021, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-tuskegee-really-a-reason-for-black-americans-to-not-get-the-covid-vaccine/950195/21 "2021-09-08T14:23:57Z")
Issues might also have to do with what happened during the 1970s. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/kva0AMaeDqc/maxresdefault.jpg "1976 Swine Flu Vaccine Roll-Out May Provide Lessons For COVID-19 Vaccination Efforts") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kva0AMaeDqc) ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2021, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-tuskegee-really-a-reason-for-black-americans-to-not-get-the-covid-vaccine/950195/22 "2021-09-08T14:47:35Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > I tell you what though…if Black Americans aren’t getting vaccinated, at least they’re wearing masks as directed for non-vaccinated people. Any time I go to the store I see 95% of the Black people are wearing masks, and a very small percent of the white people are wearing them (including me. I’m vaccinated, just paranoid) True. Even if Black people are getting vaccinated they’re at least taking some measures to protect themselves. As a general rule, the maskholes are uniformly White - we call 'em snowflakes 'cause they’re white and prone to meltdowns. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2021, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-tuskegee-really-a-reason-for-black-americans-to-not-get-the-covid-vaccine/950195/23 "2021-09-08T16:59:29Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > As a general rule, the maskholes are uniformly White - we call 'em snowflakes 'cause they’re white and prone to meltdowns. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/lXLDKwNWcME/maxresdefault.jpg "Growling passenger creates tense moment on flight from LA to Salt Lake") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXLDKwNWcME) ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2021, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-tuskegee-really-a-reason-for-black-americans-to-not-get-the-covid-vaccine/950195/24 "2021-09-08T17:26:02Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > True. > > Even if Black people are getting vaccinated they’re at least taking some measures to protect themselves. This is borne out by my (anecdotal) experience as well. In general, while it may be that Black people are as likely or more likely than white people to be vaccine-hesitant, they seem far less likely to be outright covidiots. All the people I’ve seen in public flouting mask rules and openly promulgating misinformation about COVID have been white. And apparently it’s [not just my experience](https://dornsife.usc.edu/news/stories/3388/understanding-coronavirus-in-america-mask-use-among-us-adults/), either, according to this cited survey about pre-COVID-vaccine behavior: > [@](#): > > - Though 83% of most U.S. adults view wearing a mask as an effective way to stay safe from COVID-19, their mask-wearing behavior is very inconsistent, even while they engage in higher risk activities. There are also large differences based on race and locale. > - Two-thirds of Americans reported being in close contact (within less than 6 feet) with people outside their household in early December, but only about half of them said they mostly or always wore a mask while doing so. > - White people were the least likely to consistently wear a mask (46%) while in close contact with people from other households, compared to Black people (67%), Latinos (63%) and people of other races (65%). > - Only 42% of people in rural areas wore a mask always or most of the time while close to people outside their household, compared to 52% of people in suburban locales and 57% of people in urban locales. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2021, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-tuskegee-really-a-reason-for-black-americans-to-not-get-the-covid-vaccine/950195/25 "2021-09-08T22:00:21Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > But I can’t see how the two could be comparable. > > Tuskugee was specifically inflicted on black people - you didn’t see white people being used for the experiment. They had no idea about any experiment. They were simply being told they were receiving “health care”. Health care is a thing that white people were / are receive. > [@Velocity](#): > > There’s no way anyone could target blacks specifically this way. The patients being targeted were on a special list that they had no knowledge of. So, yeah, they could be targeted by being on a special list in the same way, and then whatever additives could be added to the injections. I’m not saying that another Tuskegee is a likely prospect, merely that the OP’s arguments seem to be based on a misconception. It’s not that the Tuskegee patients thought they were being signed up for Project Daedalus or whatever, they just signed up for free healthcare, which would be the same as any white person would receive, for all they knew ☹ ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2021, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-tuskegee-really-a-reason-for-black-americans-to-not-get-the-covid-vaccine/950195/26 "2021-09-08T22:08:46Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > I read just yesterday that twice as many Black babies die before their first birthday as whites. There are doubtless many reasons for this and the Times article did not go into them. Some conjectures: poorer prenatal care, poorer postnatal care, poor blacks can’t afford doctors. It would be interesting to know whether this correlates with economic status. Probably someone has studied this. They’re also 50% more likely to be [born premature](https://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/maternalinfanthealth/pretermbirth.htm), complications of which are globally the [leading cause of death in children under age 5](https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/preterm-birth). ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2021, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-tuskegee-really-a-reason-for-black-americans-to-not-get-the-covid-vaccine/950195/27 "2021-09-08T22:20:03Z")
Black Americans disproportionately live in Southern states with generally low vaccine take up. If you control for that, it looks to me that the disparity basically goes away. Here’s some raw data: [Latest Data on COVID-19 Vaccinations by Race/Ethnicity](https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/issue-brief/latest-data-on-covid-19-vaccinations-race-ethnicity/) The most discriminatory part of the infamous experiment wasn’t lack of informed consent, as that was the norm back then. The worst part was failure to give penicillin as soon as it was shown to be the best treatment. Not getting vaccinated, by depriving yourself of what proven medical science has to offer, is equivalent to doing the Tuskegee experiment on yourself. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2021, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-tuskegee-really-a-reason-for-black-americans-to-not-get-the-covid-vaccine/950195/28 "2021-09-09T01:36:58Z")
> [@PhillyGuy](#): > > The most discriminatory part of the infamous experiment wasn’t lack of informed consent, as that was the norm back then. The worst part was failure to give penicillin as soon as it was shown to be the best treatment. Not getting vaccinated, by depriving yourself of what proven medical science has to offer, is equivalent to doing the Tuskegee experiment on yourself. Again, I disagree. Yes, in my view getting vaccinated makes sense, and in fact I am personally double-vaccinated. However, it is _most definitely_ an issue of informed consent, and trust. As far as the people in the Tuskegee experiment knew, they were receiving the absolute best medical care. That is what multiple doctors were telling them. People who now don’t trust doctors based on that, may fear that doctors will _claim_ to be giving them a vaccine but in their case, owing to their race, they’ll actually receive at best a placebo, and at worst some new pathogen. I don’t think this is a plausible scenario in 2021, even in the united states of a-fuckup, but I think it’s wrong to imply that people with this fear have misunderstood or misapplied Tuskegee. ---
**Author:** ![ralfy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ralfy/32/600_2.png) [@ralfy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralfy)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2021, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-tuskegee-really-a-reason-for-black-americans-to-not-get-the-covid-vaccine/950195/29 "2021-09-28T08:35:03Z")
A follow-up to my post: a _60 Minutes_ feature from 1979 about the 1976 swine flu vaccine: [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhiyML3zwkk) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-tuskegee-really-a-reason-for-black-americans-to-not-get-the-covid-vaccine/950195.md?page=1)