After ‘SNL’ skit on sickle cell CRISPR therapy, advocates cite errors and stereotypes
“Those two caricatures that they put on national TV is how people view us,” an advocate for people with sickle cell said about a "Saturday Night Live" skit.
Mary Brown was sipping coffee at home in Ontario, Calif., Sunday morning when a friend sent a video clip that ruined her breakfast.
It contained a skit from “Saturday Night Live” the night before about the new gene therapies for sickle cell disease. In it, workers gather for an office white-elephant-style gift exchange. A white employee, played by Kate McKinnon, gives a Black employee with sickle cell, played by Kenan Thompson, enrollment in “Vertex Pharmaceutical and CRISPR Therapeutics’ exa-cel program for sickle cell anemia,” explaining that it was a cure and she had an in with the company to get ahead on the waiting list.
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