How History and Racism Impact Black Communities during COVID-19
COVID-19 is devastating communities across the globe, with more than 394,000 deaths (as of January 2021) so far reported in the United States. And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds a “disproportionate burden and illness and death” among U.S. People of Color, particularly Black people. In Washington, D.C., alone, Black people comprise 46 percent of the city’s population, yet account for 80 percent of COVID-related deaths.
Additionally, as the U.S. rolls out the first wave of potential vaccines against COVID-19, another reality has become clear: Black American are more skeptical than other groups about the safety and efficacy of the vaccine. According to recent research, only 42 percent of African Americans say they plan to take the vaccine, compared with 62 percent of white people.
The Black community’s distrust is rooted in a history of their mistreatment by medical and government entities. For instance, beginning in 1931, the U.S. Public Health Service deliberately gave syphilis to hundreds of Black men to study the progression of the disease in the human body.
Many of those men were denied penicillin and died, even after the medication became a standard treatment for syphilis. It wasn’t until 1972 that the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment came to light in the news media.
Coupled with this history, African Americans today are still more likely than white people to have poor or no access to health care—and experience discrimination by health care professions. This means that chronic conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease may go undiagnosed and increase risks for contracting and dying of COVID-19.
Furthermore, with higher unemployment and incarceration rates—which also increase risk—Black and other People of Color are more likely to contract and die from COVID-19 than white people.
WATCH: Conversation between Garlinda Burton and Dr. James E. K. Hildreth, President and CEO of Meharry Medical College and a world-renowned HIV/ infectious disease expert
February 1, 2021 / 10:00 A.M. EST
Click here to watch the interview on Facebook Live
Dr. James E.K. Hildreth
Dr. Hildreth is the President and CEO of Meharry Medical College and a world-renowned HIV/ infectious disease expert. A graduate of Oxford and Johns Hopkins Universities, Dr. Hildreth is most notable for his 11 patents in infectious disease research and leadership role at Meharry.
As of recently, Dr. Hildreth is noted as both a local and national leader on COVID-19, especially as it relates to African American and other minority populations who have been hardest hit by the virus. Since COVID-19 hit the United States in early 2020, Dr. Hildreth has led Meharry to serve at the forefront of care for minority groups in Nashville on the Metro COVID-19 Task Force and has served as a voice for the underserved in many capacities.
Dr. Hildreth has appeared regularly in Metro Nashville press conferences as well as on national TV as a health spokesperson, explaining the science of COVID-19 and how to defeat it. Additionally, he was recently named as a temporary voting member of the U.S Food and Drug Administration’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, helping to review COVID-19 vaccine candidates.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Infographic: How churches can inform and support access to testing resources and vaccinations
Recommended Books:
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. Crown Publishing, 2011. (An HBO movie by the same name is available)
Henrietta Lacks: The Untold Story by Ron Lacks. BooksBaby, 2020.
Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present by Harriet A. Washington. Anchor, 2008.
Bad Blood: The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment (New and Expanded Edition). Free Press, January 1993.