Racism Medicine and the COVID 19 Vaccine

Honestly, the COVID vaccine makes me nervous. As terrible as COVID has been to Black people, the American medical system has a long history of using Black bodies without consent and shutting us out of medicine. This history informs how we see the medical system, including the new vaccine.

Starting from the fact that both science and medicine have a racist history in America, I break down some of the histories that cause Black mistrust in medicine with my friend Symphony, a first-year medical student. We, then, look at COVID's disproportionate effect on the Black community and the stakes of not getting vaccinated. The conversation ends with a little about the science of the COVID vaccine.

I'm not saying whether or not you should get the vaccine immediately, but these are some of the issues you might want to consider.

03:18 - A focus on medical history in America. We cover topics such as the history of gynecology, the closing of Black medical schools, and medical experimentation.

25:28 - A focus on coronavirus today. We look at its effect on non-white communities and the factors informing Symphony's decision to get the vaccine.

Hopefully, a discussion of the vaccine that takes Black fear seriously is a helpful factor in your own decision-making.

Sources and Further Reading: [As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.]

Symphony's recs -

Follow @Kizzyphd on Instagram and/or Twitter. She's a Black woman doctor working on vaccines and advocating for Black people.

Bad Blood: The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, New and Expanded Edition [https://amzn.to/3oXNYYf]

Medical Bondage: Race, Gender, and the Origins of American Gynecology [https://amzn.to/2LUduyZ]

My sources -

On Black medical schools:

Race and Medicine in Nineteenth-and Early-Twentieth-Century America [https://amzn.to/38JUk7W]

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/12/black-doctors/510017/

On Medical Experimentation:

Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present [https://amzn.to/3iqdinv]

https://lostmuseum.cuny.edu/archive/exhibit/heth

Music Credit

PeaceLoveSoul by Jeris (c) copyright 2012 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/VJ_Memes/35859 Ft: KungFu (KungFuFrijters)