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Carla Arnold is looking for black people in Pittsburgh to volunteer for corona vaccine trials. After decades of discrimination, there is great mistrust, and your participation is even more important.
By Christiane Meier, ARD Studio New York
When Carla Arnold knocks on the front door of the Pittsburgh slum “The Hill” and presents her request, reactions are often negative. “We don’t want to be guinea pigs,” then listen, “I don’t trust the government,” “They want to kill us all, they’ve already done it with Covid-19.”
Arguing against them requires very special persistence. But the 62-year-old has a mission, in the true sense of the word. Together with his small Orthodox Catholic parish, he is trying to recruit volunteers for a project that fills the black community deeply with suspicion: we are looking for subjects for comprehensive corona vaccination studies at the University of Pittsburgh, and they are assumed to be black. .
Arnold sees the arguments on his side, because until recently people with dark skin were underrepresented with about three percent participation in ongoing studies. “African Americans and dark-skinned people have to be there because often the drugs don’t suit everyone, they are just based on those who participate in the trials,” he explains. “That’s why I want us to sit at the table when the drug is produced. So we know: it works for everyone.”
Errors in studies due to homogeneous test groups
In fact, it is now indisputable in science that diversity is necessary in medical testing. We know “from many past mistakes” that when tests are conducted on homogeneous groups of test subjects, crucial details can be missed, says Dr. Mylynda Massart of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
The deep mistrust of black Americans can be traced back to one of the darkest chapters of racial segregation, Arnold explains: the US government’s unethical medical experiments on blacks, without their knowledge. The most brutal was the so-called Tuskegee project: Hundreds of young men were infected with syphilis and deliberately left untreated for 40 years until 1970, even after the effective drug penicillin was invented. This is how the disease should be investigated.
Without care there is no trust in the government
The fact that “Miss Carla”, as she is called, sometimes triumphs with her cause despite all the opposition, has to do with her credibility. For months he has been traveling the growing “Neighborhood Resilience Project” under the umbrella of the local parish to support those suffering from Covid. She goes from door to door, with medicine, food or just talking. Like her, there are dozens of other volunteers, young and old, of all skin colors.
Father Paul is the spiritual leader of the Church. The Iraqi veteran was late to recognize his calling: Only after studying theology and earning a degree in international relations did he find his way into the Syrian Orthodox Church, and at the age of 41, he is now a tireless fighter for the poor in Pittsburgh.
The government has left the black population in the lurch for generations, says: “We have to understand that the government has to be of the people for the people and through the people. And that has to start here, in the neighborhoods where we experience disadvantages.” . where the death rate from Covid-19 is disproportionately high, as is unemployment. “Better access to health care and better distribution of wealth is needed.” As long as we don’t have all of this, there will be no trust in the government “.
What if Obamacare no longer exists?
Hardly anyone in poor Pittsburgh neighborhoods has health insurance, and when they do, Obamacare co-payments are often so high that some are hesitant to see a doctor. Undocumented immigrants are completely isolated from any medical care, chronic diseases remain untreated, and many gynecologist visits are avoided for cost reasons.
Therefore, Father Paul has established his own medical care, with volunteer doctors who have been trying for years to provide free medical care for at least some.
Another concern is growing just before the election. What if the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, was outlawed by the Supreme Court or if a newly elected president, Donald Trump, were to collect it? “That would have a very negative effect on our community,” Father Paul said. “But even if you stay, we urgently need easier and, above all, more affordable access to health insurance in the US.
“I already had my second injection behind me”
And then Father Paul gets carried away to make a political statement. Many have high hopes and dreams of the election, he says: “If Biden wins, he has to build a broad coalition that takes into account both sides. And he has to work for the reconciliation of population groups. We never had any real efforts and reconciliation like in South Africa or Rwanda. We need this here in the United States. “
In Pittsburgh, in particular, population groups live on top of each other: some are white and live relatively comfortably, others are black and poor – the recipe for disaster. However, one needs each other. The university trusts “Miss Carla” – and “Miss Carla” in science.
He usually saves his best argument against abysmal mistrust until the end. When asked if she would register for the vaccination test herself, she laughed happily and replied, “I already had my second injection behind me. Look, I’m still alive.”
You can find more information about this on Sunday, November 1 at 7:20 pm in the “Weltspiegel” in Das Erste.
