Tuskegee syphilis study whistleblower Peter Buxtun has died at age 86

AP Medical Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — The whistleblower who exposed the Tuskegee syphilis study that left hundreds of Black men untreated has died at age 86. Peter Buxtun died in May of Alzheimer’s disease in California. Buxtun was a federal public health employee in the 1960s when he heard about the Tuskegee study. Rebuffed in his efforts to call attention to the experiment, he provided documents to The Associated Press. The news agency’s reporting led to a public outcry that ended the study in 1972. The government later put in place new rules about how it conducts medical research.