The Covid-19 pandemic and the uncertainty of many Blacks towards the Covid-19 vaccine was a stark reminder of this nation’s historical mistreatment of Black patients and their resulting distrust in the medical industry.The Tuskegee Experiment, also called the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, is the most commonly known medical malpractice of physicians towards a vulnerable Black population in the U.S. This research was conducted 1932 to 1972 by the U.S. Public Health Service in which Black men already, infected with syphilis, were diagnosed as having ‘bad blood’. And rather than providing them the proven and effective treatment of syphilis, doctors duped these patients by instead engaging in a four decades long study in which they observed the ravages of the disease on their bodies and health. As horrific as this study was, it was by far not the most gruesome and barbaric of malpractice. In March 1945, a Black truck driver, Ebb Cade was severely injured in an accident with what was believed to be life threatening injuries. He was taken to the Manhattan Engineer District Hospital in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Despite sustaining numerous broken bones, he survived. To his great misfortune, the doctors assigned to Mr. Cade were contracted with the US Atomic Energy Commission. When it became known that a ‘well developed colored male’ was in the hospital, he was injected with Plutonium 239 by military physician Joseph Howland. Plutonium, described as the most ‘fiendishly toxic’ radioactive substance and the same compound used in atomic bombs, was injected even before doctors set his broken bones. Subsequently, researchers pulled 15 teeth and extracted several bone samples from Mr. Cade to assess how plutonium moves throughout the human body.That March in 1945 Mr. Ebb Cade made history as the first person and Black man injected with ‘the most dangerous chemical known’ without his consent or voluntary participation in a very dangerous research experiment. It can be baffling to consider what men subjected other humans beings, however the ignorant and prejudicial coloring of Blacks as inferior, barbaric or on the level with beasts provided a cover for these heinous acts. It could accurately be said of these well respected scientists and doctors that they, in fact, were the barbarians.To learn more about the diabolical history of medicine in the U.S., read 'Medical Malpractice' by Harriett A. Washington or search for Harriett A. Washington on Youtube to view her discussions on the subject.If you would like to engage with the podcast, submit your listener questions to info@NurahSpeaks.com. Listeners can also learn more by visiting NurahSpeaks.com. You can follow Nurah Speaks on X, Instagram and Facebook @NurahSpeaks and subscribe to the channel on YouTube.
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