In addition, sterilizing Native American women without their consent, and the infamous Tuskegee syphilis experiment, led to a justifiable fear and luck of trust by people of color regarding clinical trial participation in the U.S.
Recent publications have also indicated African Americans are overly represented in experimental and procedural studies that did not require informed consent.
The underrepresentation of African American in oncological clinical trials extends to cancers that have higher rates of occurrence in the African American community.
If we follow the same logic for studies that did not require consent, studies on medical conditions that affect African Americans at a disproportionately higher rate (like multiple myeloma) should have a proportionate or higher ratio of African American subjects in the clinical trial.
People at the highest risk of the disease — like healthcare workers, frontline workers, and African American and Hispanic communities — must be included in the study design that identifies requirements for participating in the trial.
When it comes to COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials, early educational intervention to the underrepresented African American and Hispanic communities can improve the knowledge gap.
