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FILE PHOTO: Black man included in a syphilis study has blood drawn by a doctor in Tuskegee, Ala. \u00a9 National Archives via AP<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n
RT.com<\/p>\n
There\u2019s much talk in the news of a low take-up in Covid vaccinations among people of colour in the US, UK, Africa and beyond. But it\u2019s a scepticism born of horrific and shameful acts by governments and Big Pharma.
\nWell done, world. Less than a year into a global pandemic we now have quite the menu of vaccines to choose from, with hundreds of millions of doses already administered (albeit with around 75 percent of those jabs in just 10 countries).<\/p>\n
The rapid development of the drugs has been hailed as one of the few successes of an otherwise \u2013 let\u2019s be kind \u2013 clumsy global response to the coronavirus. Under-fire governments who supported this development, usually through large pharmaceutical companies or \u2018Big Pharma\u2019, have gladly welcomed such rare praise.<\/p>\n
But there is still a hitch. For vaccines to work, enough people have to take them and, putting aside the inequitable distribution, the biggest hurdle here is scepticism.<\/p>\n
Rational refuseniks<\/h3>\n
Scepticism is a broad church. Of course, you have the die-hard anti-vaxxers, for whom all inoculations range from pointless or dangerous to DNA-altering vessels for billionaires\u2019 tracking devices. The more rational sceptics worry about the speed at which these particular vaccines were developed and approved. Some people just don\u2019t like needles.<\/p>\n
Most of these groups are so small that their reluctance is insignificant to the larger fight against the virus. But scepticism among many people of colour is most certainly not.<\/p>\n
In the US, surveys have consistently shown black Americans as the racial or ethnic group least keen to take a vaccine. Black African populations, too, are highly suspicious.<\/p>\n
In the UK, where more than a quarter of the population has already had its first dose, there are worries about the emergence of \u2018vaccine poverty\u2019, as areas with large BAME populations have a significantly lower take-up of the jab \u2013 leading politicians and celebrities from those communities to encourage people to get vaccinated.<\/p>\n