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July 16, 2024

Peter Buxtun, Whistleblower Who Exposed the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, Dies at 86
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Peter Buxtun, the U.S. government whistleblower who exposed the Tuskegee
syphilis study, has died at 86. Starting in 1966, Buxtun started
sounding the alarm when he learned about the ongoing experiment as a
federal public health employee. The government-led study, which started
in 1932, observed 400 Black men in rural Alabama who had syphilis but
were denied antibiotic treatment so scientists could observe the
disease's progression. It wasn't until 1972 that the study came into
full view of the public and Congress, when AP reporter Edith Lederer
published a story about the case using information passed on to her by
Buxtun.


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