Persuading African-Americans to be vaccinated against Covid-19 is proving particularly difficult for doctors. Their fear comes after centuries of medical malpractice created mistrust in the US government ft.com/content/515d39… 
To understand why so many black Americans are sceptical of the Covid-19 vaccine, go back 90 years to Tuskegee, Alabama, where officials recruited volunteers from local farms for an unethical medical trial ft.com/content/515d39…
Men like Lillie Tyson Head’s father were part of an experiment about syphilis, which involved denying them treatment, even after a safe and effective cure had been found. At least 28 died. ft.com/content/515d39…
In 1951, while the Tuskegee experiment was still going on, Henrietta Lacks, a young tobacco farmer, went to a Baltimore hospital complaining of vaginal bleeding. Before she died of cancer, a sample of her tissue was collected without her knowledge ft.com/content/515d39…
The cells turned out to be unique. Their descendants, named HeLa cells, live on today and have been used for everything from developing the polio vaccine to helping identify how Covid-19 infects the human body ft.com/content/515d39…
Henrietta Lacks’s family didn’t find out about these miracle cells until the 1970s. They never shared in any of the commercial gain, even as HeLa cells trade among medical practitioners for thousands of dollars per vial ft.com/content/515d39…
Inequalities in the US healthcare continue today. African-Americans are less likely than their white counterparts to have private health insurance, less likely to be given mental health advice and less likely to be prescribed opioids for serious pain ft.com/content/515d39…
This distrust is why people like Dr Lisa Fitzpatrick are trying to persuade black Americans - one by one, if necessary - that they should take the Covid-19 vaccine, the best hope against the pandemic. You can read more about her work here ft.com/content/515d39…
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