People of color have been greatly underrepresented in U.S. vaccine studies over the past decade, according to a new study published Friday by researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Harvard, Emory and other institutions.
The study, which examined data from 230 vaccine studies with almost 220.00 participants, found that white people accounted for the majority, or 78%, of participants in studies conducted between June 2011 and June 2020.
However, black people accounted for 11% of participants, Hispanics accounted for 12%, and Native Americans / Alaska Natives accounted for 0.4%.
The study, published in the JAMA Network Open, comes as the nation faces a Covid-19 pandemic that has disproportionately affected people of color. Health leaders are working to combat vaccine mistrust among blacks and browns, saying the shooting is key to preventing devastation in their communities.
Black and Latin American Americans die from Covid-19 three times more than white Americans and are hospitalized at four times the rate, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Researchers are now advocating for increased diversity in vaccine studies, saying it will help resolve the vaccine’s hesitation, counter safety issues and educate communities of color. They also note that many vaccine studies have failed to fully report demographic information about participants.
“This collaborative work highlights an issue that has affected the scientific community for too long – inadequate representation in clinical trials,” said Dr. Steve Pergam, an associate professor in the Division of Vaccines and Infectious Diseases at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. The diversity seen in Covid-19 vaccine studies shows that we can do this, but we need to make sure that future studies focus not only on rapid enrollment, but also on inclusion.
Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN last year that he wants to see people of color enrolled in Covid-19 vaccine studies double the population because their communities have been hit hard by the pandemic. The US is 12% black and 18% Latino.
But last summer, researchers said they were struggling to recruit people of color to study with the Covid-19 vaccine. For example, in August, black and Latino people accounted for only 10% of the 350,000 people who signed up for a coronavirus clinical trial.
Moderna has made efforts to increase the number of people of color in its vaccination studies, but the company has not reached the levels suggested by Fauci.
Black leaders say many black Americans have refused to enroll in studies because they do not want to be “guinea pigs” for vaccine studies because of the national history of racism in medical research. They cited Tuskegee experiments from 1932-1972 that recruited 600 black men – 399 who had syphilis and 201 who did not – tracked their disease by treating men while they died or suffered serious health problems.