Al Sharpton Says Many African Americans Don’t Trust Vaccines Because Of Past History Like Tuskegee Experiment

Reverend Al Sharpton

Al Sharpton Weighs In On How Joe Biden Should Deal With Coronavirus: Blacks And Browns Are Dying Disproportionately

The Reverend Al Sharpton, famous political activist, and civil rights leader has recently been making headlines for his views on medicine instead of politics. Al Sharpton ,66, weighed in on the coronavirus pandemic in a recent interview with MSNBC talking about President-Elect Joe Biden.

“He must deal with the economic plight and he must deal with the racial disparity in COVID-19, Blacks and browns have been tested positive disproportionately and are dying disproportionately.”

Joe Biden

He also talked about how a possible vaccine would impact the African American Community.

“So even as we hear about the vaccines that are being proposed by Pfizer and others, one, the present President says that they would distribute the vaccine if it becomes available in this time period through hospitals and health centers. But many Black Americans live in healthcare deserts, where there are no hospitals or healthcare centers in our area. So he must come up with how we will see equal distribution of vaccine.”

“Many in the African American community, we don’t trust vaccines because of past history like the Tuskegee experiment. He needs to deal with that health disparity, particularly in light of COVID-19.”

The Tuskegee Syphilis Study was a clinical study conducted between 1932 and 1972 by the United States Public Health Service (PHS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The purpose of this study was to observe the natural history of untreated syphilis; the African-American men in the study were told they were receiving free health care from the Federal government of the United States. The men were initially told that the study was only going to last six months, but it was extended to 40 years. After funding for treatment was lost, the study was continued without informing the men that they would never be treated. The victims of the study, all African-American, included numerous men who died of syphilis, 40 wives who contracted the disease and 19 children born with congenital syphilis.