Fifty years ago, an Associated Press reporter uncovered the infamous “Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male.” Tragically, since the physicians deliberately withheld treatment, 28 of the 600 study patients died, 100 died from syphilis complications, 40 of their wives were infected and 19 children were born with congenital syphilis. This disgraceful 40-year study from 1932-1972 left communities of color with a lasting distrust of the institution of medicine, most especially medicine in collaboration with the government.
Today, we see a damaging form of distrust play out in significantly lower COVID-19 vaccination rates among African Americans and persistently high rates of subsequent infection and mortality. Distrust of the medical profession can also harm people at the end of life if it causes them to press for futile treatments that inflict unnecessary suffering.
Every part of American life includes discrimination, injury and injustice arising from the racism woven through our social fabric. Health care is no exception. But the stain of unequal opportunities to prevent disease and receive appropriate medical care seems especially repugnant and shameful, occurring as it does in an industry that exists to care for others and save lives.
