The COVID-19 vaccine was rolled out this week, and now there is a debate over which groups should be prioritized on the waiting list for the coronavirus vaccine. The New York Times attempted to answer the question about the COVID-19 priority list in an article entitled “The Elderly Versus Essential Workers: Who Should Get the Coronavirus Vaccine First?”
The article featured health experts, economists and epidemiologists to provide their insight into who should be at the front of the line for the COVID-19 vaccine. Much to the shock of many readers, the experts took race into account when deciding who should receive priority in receiving the potentially life-saving vaccine.
Dr. Peter Szilagyi, a committee member and professor of pediatrics at the University of California, Los Angeles, stated, “The issue of ethics is very important, very important to this country, clearly preferring the essential worker group because of the high proportion of minority workers, low-income and low-skilled workers among the essential workers. ”
Harald Schmidt, an ethics and health policy expert at the University of Pennsylvania, told the New York Times, “It is reasonable to put essential workers above older adults, given their risks, and because they are a disproportionate minority. ”
“Older populations are whiter,” Schmidt told the newspaper. “Society is structured to allow them to live longer. Instead of giving additional health benefits to those who already had more, we can start with a level playing field.”
Schmidt said essential workers should be given priority over the elderly with the vaccine, even though people aged 75-84 are 220 times more likely to die from the coronavirus than younger adults, and anyone over 85 is 630 times more likely. , according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Marc Lipsitch, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Harvard’s TH Chan School of Public Health, also hinted that a person’s race should determine who should or should not get priority on the coronavirus waiting list. Lipsitch said that teachers should not be viewed as essential workers, “as a central goal of the committee is to reduce health inequalities.”
“Teachers have middle-class salaries, are often white, and have college degrees,” Lipsitch told the Times.
Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, argued that teachers should be prioritized because it would enable people to return to work with reliable childcare in schools.
“And when you generally think of people who have jobs where they can’t telecommute, they’re disproportionately black and brown,” Gould said. “They will be more challenging if childcare is a problem.”
Twitter user Jason Compson was one of the first to point out the concerning racial aspects of the spread of the coronavirus vaccine in the New York Times article.
Later in the piece, another doctor named Marc Lipsitch explains that teachers should not be considered essential … https://t.co/DzFuytsOtH
– Jason Compson (@Jason Compson)1608271747.0
So to recap, in this single article from @JanHoffmanNYT, three experts – Schdmit, Lipsitch and Gould – say that more … https://t.co/Flz0Bh1rg6
– Jason Compson (@Jason Compson)1608272107.0
BlazeTV personality Dave Rubin tore the article apart: “Just The NY Times quotes a doctor who wants to kill older white people for political ends. (which was the next obvious step from the mess The NY Times has been pursuing for years). I don’t mean more what it used to be. ”
BlazeTVs Allie Beth Stuckey of the ‘Relatable’ podcast, commented, ‘This is so insanely bad. Please, roused Christians, go on about how Critical Race Theory is just a bogeyman made up by the right and poses no real threat. once again about how Christian nationalism is our greatest threat. ”
Columnist for the New York Post Miranda Devine wrote, “Really disgusting. Approved eugenics. The elderly are most at risk and should be the first in line for a vaccine. The color of their skin doesn’t matter. What happened to the medical profession? “
a commentator replied, “This thread shows that there is something seriously rotten in the NY Times. The attempts to value people’s lives purely on the basis of skin color are unethical, immoral and utterly backward.”
Another person noted, “Just a little glimpse into the government-run health care system here.”
The New York Times admitted that governors along with state and local health officials will ultimately decide who gets the coronavirus vaccine first and are under no obligation to follow CDC guidelines.