Without Black participants in trials, a Covid-19 vaccine will not work in African Americans.
Medical experts say African American participation in the trial is critical because race, genetics, socioeconomic and environmental factors play a big role in how drugs react in the body.
Why more African Americans don’t participate in trials has its roots in a centuries-long mistrust of experimental drugs and medical institutions.
In the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male, infected Black men were offered penicillin treatments, free medical exams, free meals and burial insurance to be a part of a 40-year study from 1932 to 1972.
Dr. John Maupin, the former president of Meharry Medical College and Morehouse School of Medicine, believes HBCUs can play a major role in increasing the number of African American participants.
