Bad Blood
- Episode aired 1992
YOUR RATING
Film investigation into the notorious Tuskegee experiment in Alabama.Film investigation into the notorious Tuskegee experiment in Alabama.Film investigation into the notorious Tuskegee experiment in Alabama.
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YOUR RATING
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Featured review
Actually a good intro
Pretty good intro to the Tuskegee study. They interview a lot of the doctors and the Black nurse interviews are used to. So you get both point of views. The doctors claiming the study was great and important and then of course the critics attacking the study.
They do lean into all the myths about racism and the civil rights in the 1960's. But the "racist study" theory is promptly refuted by an expert. There were many Black people working on the study too. They were kinda just doing it and didn't want to stop. It's like any government job or plan. It continues forever as long as the money flows as the people in power have no reason to let go of their easy income and prestige.
They also interview the patients which is the bad part of the doc as they are old frail men and it's very hard to understand them. They also don't really understand such studies at all so there is no point in asking them. The doctors and experts are more direct. Overall it's a nice overview. Taking both sides made the doc. I do have some critical points. Like why weren't the Black nurses and doctors interviewed on camera? What's the lifespan of an untreated syphilis patient compared to a treated one? How important is it to treat latent syphilis? They never really explain what would have happened if the patients had received penicillin. I assume it would have helped, but they don't really go into that. They just say that medical associations recommend a treatment not what it could have done. Their syphilis was very old when a proper treatment was developed. At that point they were already elder men and often showed no symptoms. But some patients would have needed it.
I was pretty surpriced by how little money the patients got after the study was stopped by the US government. Very little in fact. The study did last from 1930 to 1972 and it was fully public. So anyone could easily look it up, it would take no time. Hence maybe everyone is to blame. Even the patients surely would have some friends or family members who read medical science who knew exactly what was going on. People just didn't much care until we decided that it was a curious study and started caring about the moral aspects and therefore stopped the study. I do wish the doc was an hour longer. So many questions are left unanswered. They just present the study and move on.
They do lean into all the myths about racism and the civil rights in the 1960's. But the "racist study" theory is promptly refuted by an expert. There were many Black people working on the study too. They were kinda just doing it and didn't want to stop. It's like any government job or plan. It continues forever as long as the money flows as the people in power have no reason to let go of their easy income and prestige.
They also interview the patients which is the bad part of the doc as they are old frail men and it's very hard to understand them. They also don't really understand such studies at all so there is no point in asking them. The doctors and experts are more direct. Overall it's a nice overview. Taking both sides made the doc. I do have some critical points. Like why weren't the Black nurses and doctors interviewed on camera? What's the lifespan of an untreated syphilis patient compared to a treated one? How important is it to treat latent syphilis? They never really explain what would have happened if the patients had received penicillin. I assume it would have helped, but they don't really go into that. They just say that medical associations recommend a treatment not what it could have done. Their syphilis was very old when a proper treatment was developed. At that point they were already elder men and often showed no symptoms. But some patients would have needed it.
I was pretty surpriced by how little money the patients got after the study was stopped by the US government. Very little in fact. The study did last from 1930 to 1972 and it was fully public. So anyone could easily look it up, it would take no time. Hence maybe everyone is to blame. Even the patients surely would have some friends or family members who read medical science who knew exactly what was going on. People just didn't much care until we decided that it was a curious study and started caring about the moral aspects and therefore stopped the study. I do wish the doc was an hour longer. So many questions are left unanswered. They just present the study and move on.
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- JurijFedorov
- Aug 2, 2022
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