The role the race should play in deciding who gets priority for the Covid-19 vaccine in the next phase of the rollout is being put to the test in Oregon as tensions over equality and access to the shots surface nationwide.Gillian Flaccus reports to the Associated Press.
An advisory committee making recommendations to the Oregon Governor and public health authorities will vote later today on whether people of color should be prioritized, target those with chronic medical conditions, or focus on a combination of groups that have a higher are at risk from the corona virus. Others, such as essential workers, refugees, inmates and people under 65 living in groups, are also being considered.
The 27-member committee in Oregon, a democratically-run state that is predominantly white, was established with the goal of keeping fairness at the heart of vaccine rollouts. Members were selected to include racial minorities and ethnic groups, from Somali refugees to Pacific Islanders to tribes. The committee’s recommendations are not binding, but provide critical input to Gov. Kate Brown and guide health authorities in preparing the rollout.
“It’s about exposing the structural racism that remains hidden. It affects the inequalities we experienced before the pandemic and exacerbated the inequalities we experienced during the pandemic, ”said Kelly Gonzales, a Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma member and health inequality expert on the committee.
The virus has affected a disproportionate number of people of color. Last week, the Biden administration reiterated the importance of including “social vulnerability” in the state’s vaccination plans with race, ethnicity and the rural-urban divide in the foreground and asked states to identify “pharmacy deserts” where it is difficult. will be to be shot in arms.
A total of 18 states included ways to measure equity in their original vaccine distribution plans last fall, and more likely have since the admissions began arriving, said Harald Schmidt, a medical ethicist at the University of Pennsylvania who researches vaccine fairness. studied extensively.
Some, such as Tennessee, proposed earmarking 5% of its allocation for “highly deprived areas,” while states such as Ohio plan to use social vulnerability factors to decide where to distribute the vaccine, he said.
Efforts to address inequalities in access to vaccines have already sparked backlash in some places. Dallas authorities recently reversed a decision to prioritize the most vulnerable zip codes, particularly color communities, after Texas threatened to reduce the city’s vaccine supply. That kind of backlash is likely to become more pronounced as states move deeper into rollout and grapple with tough questions of need and scarcity.
To avoid legal problems, nearly all states that look at race and ethnicity in their vaccination plans turn to a resource called a “social vulnerability index” or a “deprivation index.” Such an index includes more than a dozen data points, from income to education and health outcomes to car ownership, to target disadvantaged populations without specifying race or ethnicity.
The point is not, ‘We want to make sure the Obama family gets the vaccine before the Clinton family. ‘We don’t care. They can both wait safely, ”he said. “We do care that whoever works in a meat packaging factory in a busy living situation gets it first. It’s not about race, it’s about race and falling behind. “