Black Doctors Step Up for Clinical Trials, promote Blacks to join with opposition from Black church PAC

A group of Black "Dr. Fauci's" are overseeing the safety protocols related to Coronavirus vaccine data to ease fears in the Black Community about taking potential vaccines

(The Slice): The Black medical community is stepping up to review the safety of the Coronavirus vaccine and ensure that African Americans are not left behind when it is developed. There is a general hesistancy for Blacks to voluntarily participate in trials given the history of mistreatment in hospitals and the detrimental Tuskeegee Experiment wherein Black men were injected with the syphyllis STD in a government study in the 1950s. A group of Black physicians who

With sensitivity to this historic distrust and concern for pressure from Pres. Donald Trump to rush the production of the vaccine, Dr. Leon McDougle, president of the National Medical Association is leading an independent vetting process of the pending vaccines through the foormation of a task force of Black physicians.

In a press release McDougle said he has "serious questions" about Operation Warp Speed an initiative of the Trump Administration designed to accelerate the discovery and manufacturing of a vaccine for COVID-19. Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Health and a leading expert of infectious diseases has repetedly stated a normal clinical trial takes more than a year and it could be a few years before a vaccine is developed and has admonished that it is unsafe to rush through trials. McDougle expressed direct deference to the Food and Drug Administration being swayed by politics as they have a role in approving pharmaceuticals.

“These questions of political influence on the scientific process because of Operation Warp Speed have threatened the public trust in the FDA that will adversely affect participation in clinical trials, especially in the African-American community.”

According to McDougle in and appearanceon CBS Money Watch Black physician's task force is "reviewing the available data to help ensure appropriate evidence exists, and that in clinical trials diversity is represented, in order for us to speak to the safety and allocation within the African American community,"

Along with McDougle, a family physician and professor at the Wexner Medical Center in Columbus, Ohio, the doctors involved have strong credentials in the medical field. The task frioce is comprised of experts in infectious disease like Dr. Anthony Fauci.

On the other hand, a group of churches have united to counter the promotion of Blacks taking the vaccine itself, particularly at HBCUs.

The Black Church PAC urged the presidents of Dillard University and Xavier University of Louisiana, both historically Black colleges, to refrain from offering their students up as guinea pigs for controversial and untested coronavirus vaccine trials. Given the Black community’s troubling experience with the American medical system. . ."

Credentials are not enough to assure the founders of the BCPAC that the trial should be trusted.

Pastor Michael McBride, co-founder of the Black Church PAC and campaign director of the LIVE FREE campaign, “Students and their families are voicing concerns about being pressured to participate in such trials. Urging students to get the vaccine, at a time when many in the nation are questioning the safety and effectiveness of it, is traumatizing and puzzling.”

Echoing the opposition to the involvement of HBCUs in the trial co-founder and Pastor of New Birth chruch in Atlanta, GA Jamal Bryant said, “As a leader of a Historically Black College and University, the chief constituency these leaders should be serving is students; this latest stunt calls into question their loyalty and motives.” Bryant is called for full disclosure as to if the doctors are getting paid to involve their universities in trials.

The doctors took personal responsibility in becoming examples to others in their community to overcome their fears for the sake of accuracy and protection.

Noticing the disproportinate amount of cases of the Coronavirus in Blacks compared to the population in the state of Louisiana, Dr. Kimbrough President of Dillard University and the President of Xavier University are both participating in the Coronavirus vaccine study. They are recruiting Black participation and trying convince the community of the importance of being a part of the trial to produce a vaccine that is effective for all.

Dr. Kimbrough is working to build the community's confidence in the process. He said, "That is why we have to have all of the HBCU med schools involved. The idea of vaccines are not new to us." He points out that befiore volunteering himself he did not know anyone who took part in a medical trial. it was through trials that vaccines for chicken pox were developed and not enough Blacks get involved in cancer trials linking this deficit to the apssing of Chadwick Biseman fronm Colon cancer.

Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice, President and Dean of the Morehouse Medical School also encourages Blacks to participate in trials knowing that qualified members of the community are keeping a professional eye on the process. Emphasizing safety, Dr. Rice said Blacks are are a part of the science. adding, "We would nto be recommending this if we did not beleive it is safe for our community."