I saw a post earlier that made me think about whether past racism is an acceptable excuse to not take vaccines, or at least the be skeptical of them. Here is the post:
Let's briefly examine this.
There are two at work here: First is that the history of medical malpractice involving testing unethically on black and brown people is a cause for medical skepticism. That history is real, and I do get why it would make some people skeptical of medicine in general. However, people need to overcome that. Fortunately, I think most people have done that. Anti-vaxxers seem to be overwhelmingly white. It seems like the black community almost universally understands that vaccines are safe and worth having. If nothing else, the fact that white people get the exact same vaccines should help allay any fears. I for one think that black and brown people are logical and reasonable enough to be swayed by evidence, rather than throwing money at them to manipulate their emotions...
Second is the reparations idea. I am pretty openly anti-reparations in general. It certainly will not help people feel more comfortable to very publicly give reparations. That will just become an anti-vaxxer talking point in and of itself. In fact it could turn being anti-vaccine into a something of a political message among these communities. If people are already not trusting of medicine, how does giving them money change that? If somebody thinks they are going to be physically harmed, how much do you have to pay them? This really doesn't add up.
