As a symbol of racism and medical malfeasance, the Tuskegee study may never move the nation to action, but it can change the way Americans view illness. Hidden within the anger and anguish of those who decry the experiment is a plea for government authorities and medical officials to hear the fears of people whose faith has been damaged, to deal with their concerns directly, and to acknowledge the link between public health and community trust. Government authorities and medical officials must strive to cleanse medicine of social infections by eliminating any type of racial or moral stereotyping of people or their illnesses. They must seek to build a health system that will make adequate health care available to all Americans. Anything less will leave some groups at risk, as happened at Tuskegee.
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James H. Jones (1992) studied this question.