This is from a supposedly Ivy League school:
Students at Cornell University can use their status as a “person of color” to be exempt from the university’s flu vaccine requirement.
“Students who identify as Black, Indigenous, or as a Person of Color (BIPOC) may have personal concerns about fulfilling the Compact requirements based on historical injustices and current events,” explains Cornell Health’s vaccine requirement FAQ...
“We recognize that, due to longstanding systemic racism and health inequities in this country, individuals from some marginalized communities may have concerns about needing to agree to such requirements,” explains the page. “For example, historically, the bodies of Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color (BIPOC) have been mistreated, and used by people in power, sometimes for profit or medical gain.”
Wouldn't you think that groups that had been historically denied quality health care would want to ensure they got quality health care now?
Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs.
7 comments:
Until recently, I thought the same thing. But when you think about history, vaccines were used as a guise to inject POC with deadly diseases. Therefore, it brings traumatic memories and thus becomes a frightful prospect for many. And I can see therefore why there would be opposition to such a procedure.
As someone who is white, I do not have such a fear and strongly recommend the vaccine.
Another reason to never hire anybody with a Cornell degree...
Anonymous: how does it bring back "memories" unless it happened to them?
My guess: most Americans, including black Americans, know nothing about the Tuskegee Experiments.
And if Native Americans are afraid of getting smallpox, do they refuse to use blankets at home?
I find the entire suggestion to be absurd.
No one was injected with syphilis in the Tuskegee experiments. They already had syphilis. The injustice is that the people running the experiments (a) did not inform the subjects that they were part of an experiment, (b) knowingly did not treat their syphilis, and (c) let it run its course. https://www.cdc.gov/tuskegee/timeline.htm
I don't know about that Darren. Almost every educated Black person I've met knows about the Tuskegee experiments. Conversely, a much smaller proportion of educated Whites have heard of it from my experience.
The memories can easily be from hearing their parents or grandparents talking about what happened to them. I have vivid memories of the descriptions of the Great Depression my grandparents lived through and would be a bit concerned if I saw us going into another one.
That said, I think the idea that Cornell could possibly run an 'experiment' on minority students is a bit ludicrous. The the student body would think that is also ludicrous. Roll up your sleeve, take the shot.
Steve, I'd place money that a "man on the street" survey wouldn't show much knowledge (by anyone) of the Tuskegee Experiments. I'd bet my high school students don't, and they go on to universities and become the very students Cornell is being stupid about.
I'm hearing the concern that the flu shot gives a person the flu. Anecdotally, there seems to be a problem with Vitamin D levels ..... low D = get the flu from the shot, but as usual the research is not being funded. Women have the same concern re: breast cancer.
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