Topic Overview
The COVID-19 pandemic has devastated the world for more than two years, where America and Europe are suffering more than other continents. In the United States, Laurencin (2021) explains that more than twenty million cases have been recorded, and more than 365000 patients have lost the fight against the pandemic. The number of COVID-19 cases is also prevalent in the African-American population. The death toll related to COVID-19 complications among the African-Americans population is 2.7 times more than in the white American population. It’s estimated that one patient in 825 affected African-Americans succumb to the disease while one in 3125 White American people (Laurencin, 2021) dies from the COVID-19.
Several factors have contributed to the disparity in the COVID-19 cases. Laurencin (2021) states that discrimination of the minority African-Americans in the health sector contributes to the high spread of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the United States black population. Bunch (2021), in support of Laurencin’s (2021) argument, also states that racial disparities have contributed to the high rates of African-Americans infected by the virus and the related deaths. However, the vaccine has been produced, although it’s in its initial stages. Different scholars and stakeholders in the health sector have found that the hesitancy to receive the COVID-19 vaccine is high among African-Americans (Laurencin, 2021: Bunch 2021).
Scholars have initiated the research process to determine the main factors leading to the COVID-19 vaccine resistance among the most-hit African-American population. No definite conclusion has been reached, with most scholars and stakeholders in health sectors believing that mistrust of African-Americans on health care is caused by continuous discrimination and mistreatment of African Americans. In addition, inequality is depicted in the bias in the hiring of African-Americans physicians and practitioners. Laurencin (2021) recommends that African-Americans’ mistrust of health care can be reduced by increasing the number of health workers of African descent. This study, however, holds a contrary opinion from Laurencin (2021) and Bunch (2021) by introducing the Tuskegee syphilis experiment as one of the significant factors contributing to the COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among the African-American community.
Problem Statement
According to Graber (2016), African-Americans have faced mistreatment, especially from the law enforcement agencies, including the police. They have been the victims of injustice since the slavery period, after the slavery abolishment period and it is an exacerbated situation in the twenty-first century. Eighty-nine years ago, in 1932, the United States Public Health Service, in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), initiated the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male. The study is commonly referred to as Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment (Alsan et al., 2019: Alsan & Wanamaker, 2017). The study continued for forty years until 1972, when the scandalous experiment was unearthed by the journalist and reported by different media houses include New York Times (Alsan & Wanamaker, 2017). It was conducted by Public Health Service in partnership with the Tuskegee Institute (the modern Tuskegee University) (Alsan & Wanamaker, 2017). The program recruited six hundred African-Americans from the poverty-stricken population of Macon County in Alabama.
In the forty years that the experiment was carried out, the African-American men recruited continued to suffer from syphilis, and most of them had died by 1972. The number of men that were alive had infected their wives and children with syphilis. It was a controversial study since the participants were exploited by being promised compensation to their families. Some studies argue that the men were already syphilis patients before being recruited, while others believed they were infected with the syphilis bacteria. Since the scandalous Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment was reported, the number of African-American mortality rates increased (Alsan et al., 2019). The trust for American health care by African-Americans men reduced (Graber, 2016), which forms the basis of this study paper.
Eighty-nine years later, the world is faced with a deadly pandemic, COVID-19, but African-Americans are hesitant to receive its vaccine. Different scholars give controversial findings of the impact of the Tuskegee Syphilis experiment on the willingness of African-Americans to receive other vaccines in the future. This study paper evaluates whether African-Americans who choose to take the COVID-19 vaccine are influenced by the Tuskegee scenario and how the negative mentality can be overcome to increase the campaign’s effectiveness against the COVID-19 pandemic.
Purpose of the Study
This study aims at investigating the impact of the Tuskegee Syphilis experiment on the acceptance or rejection of the COVID-19 vaccine by African-Americans. The current situation where the mistrust of African-Americans hinders the COVID-19 vaccination concerns both African-Americans and the health stakeholders since it affects the campaign against the pandemic negatively. The study will apply a quantitative research approach to get the views from the African-Americans on their positions about the COVID-19 vaccine and whether their decision is influenced by the forty years Tuskegee Syphilis experiment.
Significance of the Study
Although different scholars have studied the factors impacting African-Americans decision to get a vaccine, most of them are focused on discrimination and racism. Few studies have explored the impact of past injustices, especially in health care which could have contributed to vaccine hesitancy in the group. This study will be among the first studies seeking the connection between COVID-19 vaccine reluctance and the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment in the history of African-Americans. The study will contribute knowledge and will be used by other scholars who will continue with the research on Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment and its Impact on future vaccinations and trials.
Research Questions and Hypothesis
According to research by Prather, Fuller, Jeffries, Marshall, Howell, Belyue-Umole, and King (2018), racism has affected the quality of sexual and reproductive health of African-American women. The research by Prather et al. (2018) is one of the studies that represent the state of health in the United States. The disparity in health care is evident, and it has transformed into mistrust between African-Americans and United States health system. The Tuskegee Syphilis experiment is one of the most non-ethical discrimination and exploitation in the history of American health care. The following research question, therefore, guides this study:
RQ1: Is there a relationship between mistrust of African-Americans receiving the COVID-19 vaccine and the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment?
For this study to answer the research question, it conducts a hypothetical analysis guided by several hypotheses. The summary of the hypotheses are listed as follows:
- H1: Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment has a long-term impact on the African-Americans desire to participate in the vaccination process or vaccination trials.
- H2: Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment does not impact the decision by the African-Americans to be vaccinated against COVID-19 trials.
- H3: African Americans are impacted differently by the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment memories, and their decision to acquire the COVID-19 vaccine also varies according to age or gender.
- H4: other factors, including continued discrimination and disparity in health care, also contribute to the persistence of negative mentality on African-Americans on vaccines, and it is a factor contributing to hesitancy in receiving the COVID-19 vaccine.
References
Alsan, M., Wanamaker, M., & Hardeman, R. R. (2019). The Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis: A Case Study in Peripheral Trauma with Implications for Health Professionals.Journal of General Internal Medicine, 35(1), 322–325. Web.
Alsan, M., & Wanamaker, M. (2017). Tuskegee and the Health of Black Men*. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 133(1), 407–455. Web.
Bunch, L. (2021). Correction to: A Tale of Two Crises: Addressing COVID-19Vaccine Hesitancy as Promoting Racial Justice.HEC Forum, 33(1-2), 155–155. Web.
Graber, A. (2016). Lessons from Tuskegee: What Law Enforcement Can Learn from the History of Bioethics.Criminal Justice Ethics, 35(2), 123–141. Web.
Prather, C., Fuller, T. R., Jeffries, W. L., Marshall, K. J., Howell, A. V., Belyue-Umole, A., & King, W. (2018). Racism, African American Women, and Their Sexual and Reproductive Health: A Review of Historical and Contemporary Evidence and Implications for Health Equity.Health Equity, 2(1), 249–259.
Web.Laurencin, C. T. (2021). Addressing Justified Vaccine Hesitancy in the Black Community.Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, 8(3), 543–546. Web.