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RFK Jr’s claim about Black people’s immune systems is ‘unscientific and terrifying’
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 05 Feb 2025
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I randomly rewatched The Help and one of the racist white ladies was talking about how black people have different germs. "How ridiculous," I thought. And yet here we are.
Again.
They were still telling students in med school as recent as the past 4 years that black ppl need less painkillers because we, "Tolerate pain better than other races."
Ppl surprised by this rhetoric haven't been paying attention
It’s well documented that black people get less care and are prescribed less painkillers because of this myth, as well as the racist assumption that block people seeking out pain relief are just after drugs
I've heard that about redheads, but never about black people.
Red headed black people shouldn't need painkillers at all.
(I bet I could write a 5 sentence research paper and send it to this dipshit and he'd quote it)
I think the redhead thing is that they have a higher resistance to anesthesia. Just doesn't work as well.
Pretty fucked up if they were teaching that despite a lack of evidence.
That said, the concept itself isn't completely far fetched... Red heads need more anesthesia than everyone else for some genetic reason. Another group needing less for genetic reasons seems plausible.
Redheads are probably less genetically diverse than the rest of the population, iirc it's mostly caused by a recessive gene. So if someone is a redhead, then the chances are high that they share other special genes with other redheads.
Africans on the other hand are more genetically diverse than people from other continents. It's possible that some African population groups require different levels of medications, but you won't be able to tell those population groups apart by the color of their skin.
As a redhead, I would like to say that I feel like the human equivalent of one of those dogs bred for looks who has problems. Because man, do I seem to have problems.
Which isn't to say that's true for all redheads, but it is for me.
Redheads need a lower opioid dose than the general population to achieve the same effect. At least those who are redheads because of a mutation in their MCR1 gene, which is about 75%, IIRC. Interestingly, the same mutation group also have worse tolerance of cold, which seems odd given that scotland is the global redhead centre!
https://www.uclahealth.org/news/article/natural-redheads-may-need-more-anesthesia
It’s a bit complicated, both because some studies just asked people if they are ‘natural redheads’ and didn’t actually test whether they have the MCR1 mutation and because it depends on the mechanism of action of the drug. Some sedatives are less effective, so need higher doses, but the majority of opioid based pain control drugs require lower doses in redheads.
https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/study-finds-link-between-red-hair-pain-threshold
Despite there being other studies showing that it's factually untrue, and this perception comes down to different levels of empathy. (I know, what a surprise)