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| -Signs, Portents, and the Weather- |
| Mistrust of government is significant roadblock to Black American vaccination efforts |
| 2020-12-23 |
| [The Hill] The rollout of the first approved COVID-19 vaccine this week is raising questions of when the game-changing inoculations will be ready for everyday Americans. But for communities of color, especially Black communities, that carry a deep-seated mistrust of the government, the question is if they will take the vaccine at all. The mistrust isn’t surprising. From the early to mid-20th century, tens of thousands of nonwhite women were sterilized by the government. For four decades, the government ran what is known as the Tuskegee Syphilis Study in the deep South on exclusively Black men. Researchers never received informed consent from the participants, nor offered them treatment for the disease even after penicillin became the main form of treatment for syphilis. The experiment wasn’t stopped until 1972. In 1951, doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore removed tissue samples without consent from Henrietta Lacks, a Black woman who was being treated for cervical cancer. Part of the tissue sample became the first immortalized human cell line and is still widely used in cancer research today. All of these things happened within the past 100 years and have not been easily forgotten. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #7 How many "white women" have been sterilized by the government Reportedly, many of the poor ones deemed of subnormal intelligence or having a variety of mental health issues... or those who simply were too assertive, and so came to the attention of the authorities. Voluntary birth control was not the only tool in the arsenal of the eugenicists such as Margaret Sanger. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2020-12-23 23:59 |
| #6 How many "white women" have been sterilized by the government (or at least with government financial support)? |
| Posted by: Bubba Lover of the Faeries8843 2020-12-23 23:06 |
| #5 This 'distrust the government' story seems to be one that is always floated by white leftists, and they always bring up the same things. Usually as an explanation of why it is rayciss to expect someone to provide identification when it comes to voting. Real distrust would be accompanied by being self-sufficient, and I don't see that in a lot of 'black communities' |
| Posted by: Bob Grorong1136 2020-12-23 19:47 |
| #4 /\ So recent government actions are helping by making white people mistrust the government more. In my case Tom, I'm not at all certain that is possible. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2020-12-23 13:09 |
| #3 So recent government actions are helping by making white people mistrust the government more. So we're all more equal. |
| Posted by: Tom 2020-12-23 13:01 |
| #2 People of color mistrust the federal government because of past abuses. People of color also vote Democrat so the federal government can take care of them. Maybe lean into that mistrust a bit more consistently and things will get better. |
| Posted by: Rjschwarz 2020-12-23 08:00 |
#1  From the early to mid-20th century, tens of thousands of nonwhite women were sterilized by the government.It all happened too quickly. No one thought a vaccination could be developed this soon. There was simply no time to develop an effective program of financial incentives. Once the incentives are fielded, compliance will become much easier. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2020-12-23 06:57 |