Columnist Jamala Rogers
I started doing my own straw poll on who will get the N1H1 vaccination. I discovered hardly anyone of African persuasion was going to take advantage of free shots let alone pay for them. African Americans have good reason to be suspicious of such vaccinations but it appears that we’re not alone.
The Harvard School of Public Health poll showed that only about 60 percent of those polled said they were sure they would not receive the vaccine. Only about half polled said they would get their children vaccinated. This last number was slightly up from a September survey by Consumer Reports.
Young children are in the high risk group for N1H1, aka the swine flu. This is a serious decision for parents to make, so why are they balking?
Most citizens balk at government-backed medical treatments for the same reason that black folks do: mistrust. Black people have a long history of being this country’s guinea pigs, from the Tuskegee syphilis experiments to forced sterilization. We tend not to do a bum rush on situations like this, and the N1H1 vaccine is no exception.
Dr. Harriet Washington was recently in St. Louis as part of the Homer G. Phillips Lecture Series. I missed her presentation and would have loved to hear this medical ethicist’s views on the current pandemic and its vaccination. Dr. Washington is the author of the critically acclaimed book Medical Apartheid: the Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present. The book is a comprehensive history of Black America’s inhumane mistreatment as unwilling and unwitting experimental subjects.
People are fearful of the flu but seem to be equally as fearful of their government. They cite reasons like being wary of sufficient testing and mistakes being made in the quick manufacturing of the drug. The current outbreak has sickened more that 340,000 people around the world resulting in 4100 deaths. The U.S. government has already purchased 250 million doses of the vaccine and stands ready to make more of the drug.
If you’re old enough, you may also remember the swine flu vaccinations after a mysterious breakout confined to the Fort Dix Army base. In October 1976, some 40 million people were vaccinated in this country. The mass vaccination program was halted when the treatment was killing more people than the virus itself. About 500 of those vaccinated came down with Guillian-Barre Syndrome, a rare condition that affects the nervous system causing paralysis and in some cases, death. The Great Swine Flu Epidemic of 1976 never took place despite the hype, but the riveting cases of crippled and dead victims lingered on.
I am certainly in no position to give guidance to my readers as to whether they should get a flu shot or not. I wish I had that kind of confidence in the government and the medical system. What I will say is that any decision should be based upon researching the vaccine and looking at your own risk factors with a health care professional you trust.
It’s a shame that we can’t fully respond to the national panic button about an epidemic because we also know there’s a vulturous pharmaceutical industry waiting in the wings to make a profit.