K. Roberts (Columbia University), Sarah B. Rodriguez (Northwestern University), Malte Thießen (LWL-Institut für westfälische Regionalgeschichte); Moderator: Johannes Paulmann (Leibniz Institute of European History)
Sponsors: Institute of European Studies, German Historical Institute Washington, German Historical Association
“Vaccines and (Dis-)trust in Medical Science in Times of Crisis” is the topic of the third panel in a series of discussions on ”Racism in History and Context” organized by the German Historical Institute Washington, the German Historical Association (Verband der Historiker und Historikerinnen Deutschlands), and the Institute of European Studies at UC Berkeley. On March 9, Ute Frevert (Max Planck Institute for Human Development), Samuel K. Roberts (Columbia University), Sarah B. Rodriguez (Northwestern University), and Malte Thießen (LWL-Institut für westfälische Regionalgeschichte) will discuss the deep historical roots of trust and distrust in medical and scientific authority.
As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to disproportionately affect racialized populations around the globe, vaccination programs are emerging as a new arena for racism and its manifestations. It has already become apparent, for example, that structural disadvantages in access to health care as well as doubts about the integrity of medical scientists threaten to undermine vaccines as an effective and widespread cure for the global crisis. Which past experiences inform today’s discourses and developments? What role does race play in the trust or distrust of medical experts and public health authorities?
Looking back at diverse historical episodes, narratives, memories, and chapters, some of which have been largely relegated to oblivion, the panel will use vaccines as a lens through which to examine three dynamics that have influenced the historical relationship between racism, medical science, and society: 1) The history of medical experimentation on racialized groups in both Europe and the U.S.—in Germany and much of Western Europe, this history was linked to colonialism and the National Socialist regime, whereas in the U.S., it was connected to imperialism, slavery, and segregation; 2) The subjection of racialized populations on both sides of the Atlantic to wanton abuse, torture, and murder by medical professionals and; 3) A contemporary distrust of experts and medical knowledge in particular that we see as inseparable from racialized views of Covid-19’s origins in “unclean” geographies, from its manner of transmission and from real and perceived dangers to the body politic.