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Some compared the vaccine trial to the 1932 Tuskegee syphilis study -- an unethical case where hundreds of Black men were injected with syphilis and left untreated. At least 128 participants died and 40 of their spouses and 19 children also contracted the disease. In 1972, the Associated Press broke the story, forcing the study to shut down immediately and sparking public outrage.

Despite a $10 million out-of-court settlement for the participants and their families, the notorious experiment left a lasting stain on medical studies for the Black community for generations, building a stigma around medicine.

\"Medical establishments have to do better. They have to re-train their faculty and staff to think in humane ways about their Black patients to treat them with the equity that we hope to see in every sector of society,\" Kelley said.

That is something the universities and presidents also consider. XULA is listed first among the nation's colleges and universities for African American students who continue their education and complete medical school, according to a special report compiled by the Association of American Medical Colleges.

\"There have been so many missed opportunities because of the exclusion of African American tribes,\" Verrett said. \"We cannot benefit from a health care system in which we are absent.\"

\"PHOTO:
Raymond Boyd/Getty Images, FILE
PHOTO: MeHarry Medical College on Jan. 1, 2016, in Nashville, Tennessee.
>

Verrett denied all allegations of any financial gain for XULA for asking students to consider participating in the trials. He said his goal with the letter was to educate and advance his students.

\"There's a lot of thinking and learning that has to be done, and that learning is a teachable moment for our students,\" he said.

While HBCUs and Black community leaders work for more participation, clinical researchers say they're still struggling to maintain diverse trial participation. Clinical research consultants Sholeh Ehdaivand and Sherri Boykin say one root of that is that there's not enough diversity among clinical investigators involved in the research during the clinical vaccination trials.

\"It all stems from who you know,\" Boykin told ABC News, explaining that the government selects clinical investigators, who run the trials, and people generally stay within the same circles -- leading to Ivy League schools' outsized involvement in trials.

\"Investigators involved in the clinical research trials should look beyond large predominantly white institutions that usually get priority ... try going a few miles down the road to include minority institutions as well,\" Boykin, who founded Marlee Research Group, an organization working to increase diversity within clinical trials, with Ehdaivand, said.

\"PHOTO:
Hans Pennink/AP, FILE
PHOTO: Nurse Kathe Olmstead prepares a shot that is part of a possible COVID-19 vaccine, developed by the National Institutes of Health and Moderna Inc., in Binghamton, N.Y., July 27, 2020.
>

Still, Ehdaivand and Boykin believe public health information and outreach is only half the battle; \"the Black community also owes it to themselves to do their research and get involved with your own health care,\" Ehdaivand said.

As of Oct. 16, Moderna says approximately 36% of study participants in its COVID vaccine trials are from communities of color. Pfizer recently expanded their pool of COVID vaccine trial participants by including 16- and 17-year-old teens and higher numbers of Hispanic, Black, Asian, and Native American participants.

While HBCUs prepare to expand COVID-19 testing across campuses and establish the beginning stages of vaccine trials, hoping to break generational mistrust in American medicine and further medical advances by including the people who need it the most, there are still myriad systemic forces at work amid the pandemic.

\"We're dying at high rates because we're essential workers,\" Kelley said. \"We're dying at high rates because we live in food deserts. We're dying at higher rates because we suffer from diseases at higher rates because we have less access to medical care. That's not being Black, that's racism.\"

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