Western research takes aim at medical racism

Western research shows medical racism is one reason for vaccine hesitancy among Black and Indigenous people. iStock photo Health experts wanting to understand vaccine hesitancy in racialized communities should look beyond simple answers, according to a team of Western researchers. Marginalized groups in Canada continue to grapple with a legacy of medical racism, said Sinéad Osivwemu, a third-year science student who recently co-led a research project about race, distrust and vaccine hesitancy. Osivwemu and Kharissa Edwards, BSc'21, conducted an undergraduate research project, supervised by philosophy professor Carolyn McLeod, about how some media describe people who have not been vaccinated against COVID-19. "Vaccine hesitancy for people in marginalized communities is not the same as being an anti-vaxxer. Their distrust of the medical establishment is often grounded in historical and present reality," Osivwemu said. "Yet sometimes, they're written off as having a lack of knowledge or a lack of intelligence." Osivwemu and Edwards were students in McLeod's Power, Oppression and Privilege course prior to leading the research project.