‘Not lab rats.’ Black colleges blasted for urging Louisiana students into COVID trials
The presidents of two historically Black colleges in New Orleans have joined early vaccine trials for COVID-19 and are asking their campus communities to consider doing the same. But not everyone is on board with the idea.
Dillard University President Walter M. Kimbrough and Xavier University of Louisiana President C. Reynold Verret co-penned a letter to students and staff last week encouraging Black people and other non-white groups to ensure coronavirus vaccine trials are racially diverse.
“Our communities have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, with harrowing consequences for the lives and health of our fellow citizens,” the letter read. “Overcoming the virus will require the availability of vaccines effective for all peoples in our communities, especially our black and brown neighbors.”
Both Kimbrough and Verret are already taking part in Ochsner Medical System’s current vaccine trial,saying it’s “of the utmost importance” that a significant number of Black, Latino and non-white subjects take part in the study.
“We appeal to the students, faculty, staff and alumni of Dillard, Xavier, and our sibling institutions to consider participating in this trial or others being conducted,” the Sept. 2 letter read. “The people and communities we serve look to us as an example. Our participation in such studies will help find ways to better fight the pandemic.”
The call for students to consider enrolling in the clinical trials sparked immediate concern among some parents who balked at the idea of their children being used as “test subjects,” citing the historical exploitation of Black people for the advancement of medicine.
“Our children are not lab rats for drug companies,” one parent wrote on the Xavier University Facebook page. “This is very disturbing given the history of drug trials in the black and brown communities.”
“This letter is an outrageous insult to our community,” another agreed. “How dare you suggest they use our community to experiment on.”
Kyazia Felder, a two-time Xavier alum who graduated with her Masters in Public Health in health equity this summer, agreed that diversity is important in clinical trials but said the university’s messaging on the matter “missed the mark.”
“Considering history, and the ways medicine is advancing, we are often left out of important research such as this,” Felder wrote. “If we’re not represented, we will suffer as a population. So YES, we should have representation in these trials [but] ... contextualizing the need to do so would have been a better message. Acknowledge the facts of our history, and present how a lack of representation ultimately worsens disparities.”
Both Dillard and Xavier are private schools and longtime academic institutions in New Orleans. Dillard was founded in 1869 and Xavier in 1925.
History of mistrust
In their letter, Kimbrough and Verret acknowledged “unethical examples of medical research” on Black bodies, including the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. The experiment, launched in 1932, involved 399 Black men infected with syphilis — many of whom never received the proper treatment for the disease even after a cure became available.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also notes that the study was “conducted without the benefit of patients’ informed consent.”
An advisory council “found that the men had agreed freely to be examined and treated,” according to the health agency. “However, there was no evidence that researchers had informed them of the study or its real purpose. In fact, the men had been misled and had not been given all the facts required to provide informed consent.”
Kimbrough said he knows many in the Black community have their reservations about the COVID-19 vaccine trial but emphasized the importance of their participation, considering the virus has impacted non-white communities at disproportionate rates.
“Louisiana is a state where Black people are 33% of the population and 48% of [coronavirus] deaths,” Kimbrough told McClatchy News. “We’re one of the highest in terms of disparities ... so it’s really important for us to try and get something that works for Black folks.”
Louisiana has almost 155,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, according to the Louisiana Department of Health. The state has recorded 5,118 deaths — the 12th most in the United States — according to Johns Hopkins University.
Kimbrough acknowledged the history of mistrust African-Americans have with medical research but said he was “shocked” by the criticism the university has received — most of which he said has come from outside the campus community.
“We’re just trying to put out the call to say, ‘this is an issue that we’re not talking about,’ ” he said. “We have to have a diversity of people participating to ensure that it works for us. That’s all we’re saying. Just think about it, because there’s a need.”
A 2015 study examining low participation among African-American adults in medical research found that mistrust of the public health system was a common theme. Other factors that contributed to low participation included history of racial discrimination, misinformation about the research and questions about the motives of researchers who conduct these studies
“Perhaps the most disturbing instance of mistrust that participants described is the belief that information about research studies and their participation is withheld by researchers, which may be one factor that perpetuates feelings of mistrust,” study authors wrote. “As researchers continue to behave in a way that exacerbates mistrust, so will the fear about research among the African American community continue.”
“In turn, there will continue to be low participation rates, resulting in studies that can only be generalized to the white majority,” they added.
A ‘moral contribution’
It’s been three weeks since Kimbrough’s first dose of the vaccine and he said so far, all is well. He and Verret are among a “limited number of randomized participants” from across Louisiana who expressed interest in taking part in the trial, which is sponsored by Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE.
“There definitely needs to be more conversation (about the vaccine),” Kimbrough told McClatchy News. “It’s sort of like we’re more afraid of the solution than we are of the sickness ... so if my moral contribution is to participate in this study and I’m a healthy 53-year-old Black man, I’m going to do it.”
“If you don’t want to do it, then don’t. Go on about your business,” he said.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, has said a COVID-19 vaccine could be ready by end of year and distributed to the public by 2021.
This story was originally published September 9, 2020 at 4:32 PM with the headline "‘Not lab rats.’ Black colleges blasted for urging Louisiana students into COVID trials."