A COVID-19 vaccine will work only if trials include Black participants, experts say

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Calethia Hodges has an arduous task: persuade Black people who have a deep mistrust of experimental drugs and medical institutions to participate in clinical trials to help find a vaccine for the deadly coronavirus.

It is quite the paradox. African Americans have been disproportionately devastated by COVID-19, but they are inadequately represented in human studies that would treat a disease that has claimed more than 116,000 lives in the United States. Almost a quarter of those were Black, according to a study called Color of Coronavirus by APM Research Lab.

"And that's why I do what I do," said Hodges, a clinician at Infinite Clinical Trials outside Atlanta. "And that's why I am here, in this neighborhood that is predominantly African American."

African American participation in the trial is critical, medical experts have said. Researchers of pharmacogenetics — the science that studies how genetic factors affect reactions to drugs — stress that medicine could produce different results based on race and genetic, socioeconomic and environmental dynamics.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/covid-19-vaccine-will-only-work-if-trials-include-black-n1228371?utm_source=nl&utm_brand=wired&utm_mailing=WIR_Science_061720&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_medium=email&utm_term=WIR_Science&bxid=5be9f8cb24c17c6adf0e5d24&cndid=25394153&esrc=bounceX&source=EDT_WIR_NEWSLETTER_0_SCIENCE_ZZ

[helpisontheway]

1. Hell no I'm not letting them experiment on me..I'm at a much higher

risk anyway. I have other co morbidities in addition to my race..

[eppur_se_muova]

2. This is something I've wondered about -- most pharmaceuticals are tested first on young white males

because it is easier to find a large number of volunteers without complicating factors from that group, given US demographics. It has been observed with some drugs that complications affecting primarily women, nonwhites, older or younger patients not observed in these earlier trials can be significant. So I'm wondering -- and don't know how to argue the point, for or against -- that perhaps the "best", most recent antiviral drugs we have available haven't yet been tested on more diverse populations, and so we are just now finding out they aren't terribly helpful for AA patients. I'd be pretty surprised if the effect is that large, and I certainly realize that poverty and lack of affordable medical care strongly skew the results, but perhaps there's more than those factors involved. I hope more attention is focused on such issues.