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We keep citing the Tuskegee syphilis study to explain why communities of color don't "trust" the medical & public health establishments.
But here's the thing, POC are not really dividing our experiences with the government into "health" vs "not health" categories.
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But here's the thing, POC are not really dividing our experiences with the government into "health" vs "not health" categories.
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Yes, Tuskegee was atrocious, as was the sterilization of immigrant women. And these are only two of many times our fields have taken advantage of marginalized communities of color https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29565671/ 2/
But those trying to survive in communities of color don't have the luxury of differentiating the medical system from the systems of government that ignore them or seek to do them harm. No one on the ground says, "I know ICE wants my mom, the cops got my dad, but HHS is cool." 3/
Let's think for a moment if folks will make vaccine decisions based on Tuskegee, which ended in the 1970s, or the killing of Floyd, the home invasion and shooting of Breonna Taylor, or ICE showing up with PPEs to detain folks. https://vice.com/en/article/bvgamz/ice-is-asking-for-45000-surgical-masks-when-some-doctors-and-nurses-cant-even-find-one 4/
What's the answer? Well, one way to get someone/a community to trust you is to BE TRUSTWORTHY.
If we want folks to believe that public health/medicine have their best interests in mind, THEN WE MUST HAVE THEIR BEST INTERESTS IN MIND. This may be about a vaccine.... 5/
If we want folks to believe that public health/medicine have their best interests in mind, THEN WE MUST HAVE THEIR BEST INTERESTS IN MIND. This may be about a vaccine.... 5/
... but it's also about addressing the systems that take years off of the lives of POC, while making us sicker, less likely to be with our families, and take away our voting power. …https://journals-sagepub-com.proxy.lib.umich.edu/doi/full/10.1177/1532673X18754555 6/
I AM SO PRO COVID VACCINE.
but remember, it's not only those who are working to literally get people vaccinated who are doing the racial equity work around vaccinations. 7/
but remember, it's not only those who are working to literally get people vaccinated who are doing the racial equity work around vaccinations. 7/
Rather, it's the out reach workers, the intake workers, the lone Spanish speaker in the health department, the re-entry workers... they are addressing the historic sins of public health & medicine, not just "getting people to trust us," but literally making us worth trusting. 8/
