Bad Blood
For 40 years, the Public Health Service told 600 African-American men in Alabama that they were receiving free healthcare from the federal government. In reality, the PHS, in partnership with the Tuskegee Institute, was researching the natural history of syphilis. The men who had syphilis were never informed of their diagnosis– instead the PHS told them they were being treated for “bad blood,” a colloquial term for syphilis, anemia, and fatigue, as Joanne explains.
Music:
Seamless by Blue Dot Sessions
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Speaker 1:
Major funding for BackStory is provided by an anonymous donor, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation.
Brian Balogh:
From Virginia Humanities, this is BackStory. Welcome to BackStory, the show that explains the history behind today’s headlines. I’m Brian Balogh.
Joanne Freeman:
I’m Joanne Freeman.
Brian Balogh:
If you’re new to the podcast each week, along with our colleagues at Ed Ayers, Nathan Connolly, we explore a different aspect of American history.
Joanne Freeman:
In 1932, 600, African American men in Alabama were told by the Public Health Service that they were receiving free health care from the federal government. In reality, the PHS in partnership with the Tuskegee Institute was conducting a study to examine the natural history of syphilis.
Joanne Freeman:
Nearly 400 of the men in the study had syphilis. The other 200 did not. But the men were not informed of their diagnosis. Instead, the PHS told them they were being treated for quote, bad blood, a casual term used to describe a mix of ailments like syphilis, anemia, and fatigue. The project was originally planned to take about six months. Instead, it lasted for 40 years.
Joanne Freeman:
In 1972, the Associated Press broke the news of the Tuskegee study to the public, it was met with swift backlash. The study ended that year after a panel found the men with syphilis had never received proper treatment for the disease, even after penicillin became the go to treatment drug in the mid 1940s. The panel also found the researchers had never informed the men of the study’s true purpose, and were not given all the information needed to provide informed consent.
Joanne Freeman:
A year later, in 1973, the NAACP filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of the patients and their families. The federal government paid $10 million in a settlement and agreed to provide free medical care to all living patients and their descendants. But the painful memory of the Tuskegee study did not end with monetary and medical compensation. Patients continue to struggle with health problems because their condition went untreated for decades. The study also contributed to a broader distrust of the medical system among patients and their families. In 1997, President Bill Clinton apologized for the government’s wrongdoing.
Bill Clinton:
What was done cannot be undone. But we can end the silence. We can stop turning our heads away. We can look at you in the eye and finally say on behalf of the American people, what the United States government did was shameful, and I am sorry.
Brian Balogh:
The Tuskegee Study is just one example of the history of racial health disparities in the United States. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that these disparities are sadly still present today. Communities of color are being hit hard by the virus. According to the CDC, 33% of people who’ve been hospitalized due to COVID-19 have been African American. This is a striking statistic considering African Americans make up only 18% of the population.