Why there’s COVID-19 vaccine skepticism in the Black community

A history of distrust with the medical community dates back to the Tuskegee experiment.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., lambasted Israel as a “racist state” during an interview on “Democracy Now!” on Tuesday while discussing the low vaccination rate of Palestinians.

The host, Amy Goodman, mentioned that Israel is one of the most vaccinated countries in the world, at 20%, while Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank – where Tlaib has family members – have supposedly not been provided vaccines.

Asked to give her take, Tlaib said it’s “important to understand that Israel is a racist state in that they would deny Palestinians like my grandmother access to a vaccine; that they don’t believe that she’s an equal human being that deserves to live, deserves to be protected by this global pandemic.”

“It’s really hard to watch as this apartheid state continues to deny their own neighbors, the people that breathe the same air they breathe, that live in the same communities,” Tlaib said. “I hope our country sees what the Palestinians have been trying to tell us for a very long time: that Israel has no intention of ever being caring or allowing equality or freedom for them as their neighbors. And you can see it with the distribution of the vaccines.”

Tlaib said Israel has the power to distribute vaccines to the Palestinians, but their alleged refusal to do so is illustrative of what they supposedly are: “an apartheid state.”

Data from an Oxford University-run tracking site shows that Israel has administered more COVID-19 vaccinations than any other nation. Palestinians, however, have not been covered in the rollout.

According to a report from The Guardian, Israeli officials maintain that Palestinians might receive surplus vaccines and that the Palestinian Authority has not officially asked for help.

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