NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – A Tennessee advisory panel tasked with deciding in which order residents should receive the COVID-19 vaccine recognized that inmates in the state were at high risk, but concluded that giving them priority for vaccination a relationships nightmare. ”
The result: Prisoners are part of the last group for which vaccines are planned in the state, although the Pandemic Vaccine Planning Stakeholder group concluded that “if left untreated, they will be a vector of transmission from the general population,” according to data from behind closed doors of the panel. obtained by The Associated Press. To date, there is no set timeline for vaccine rollout in prison.
The Tennessee debate reflects a problem that states across the country face when introducing life-saving vaccines: whether a population that is seen by many at best as an afterthought, separated from the public, and undeserving at worst are considered. The backlash comes even though medical experts have argued since the start of the pandemic that prisoners were at an extremely high risk of infection, as they live in very close contact with each other and have little capacity for social distance.
“It shows a lack of morality and a lack of empathy to let someone die or put them at greater risk because they happen to be in prison. … Before anyone was ever incarcerated, they were first someone’s child, mother, brother, father or sister, and they remain so and they should be considered, cared for and seen as such, ‘said Jeannie Alexander, executive director of the No Exceptions Prison Collective, a grassroots organization in Nashville.
Just a few months ago, as COVID-19 cases boomed in the US, The Associated Press and The Marshall Project showed cumulative contamination rates among prison populations. The analysis found that by mid-December, 1 in 5 state and federal inmates in the United States had tested positive for the coronavirus, a rate more than four times that of the general population. Cases have since declined, but remain higher than the general population.
Tennessee is ranked 24th in the nation for COVID-19 prisoner cases. To date, 1 in 3 of the state’s inmates – more than 38,800 in total – have tested positive for the virus since the outbreak started spreading almost a year ago. More than 40 inmates have died from COVID-19.
So far, the state has vaccinated an unknown number of correctional workers – Tennessee doesn’t publish that information like other states do – but no prisoners. Twenty-four states have allowed at least some of their inmates to be vaccinated, including those who were qualified under state age guidelines or had pre-existing health issues, according to data from the AP and the Marshall Project.
Occasionally, for the past year, some of the United States’ largest coronavirus clusters have been in Tennessee prisons, with hundreds of active cases in multiple facilities.
In the spring, Trousdale Turner Correctional, a private prison run by Tennessee-based CoreCivic, saw about half of its 2,444 inmates test positive for the coronavirus, while more than 1,100 inmates at the 1,700-place South Central Correctional Facility contracted the virus . The state reported only 17 positive cases of prisoners on Friday. Visitation has been suspended for months. The state’s prison population hovers around 30,000, with local prisons housing around 19,000.
In fact, documents from the meetings of the Pandemic Vaccine Planning Stakeholder Group emphasized the importance of the general public as inmates are ‘people’ who should be treated as’ part of the community ‘and’ if not treated, they will be a vector of transmission of the general population. Still, the documents admit that providing the vaccine to inmates would result in “a lot of media investigations.”
The panel is made up of about 40 public health agencies, legislators, health coalitions, disaster relief and other organizations. Because it has an advisory role, it is not required by Tennessee law to meet in public, and there are no audio recordings of the meetings, the Department of Health said. The AP obtained the meeting notes through a request for public records.
According to the documents, the group first met virtually on September 22, before vaccines were available. The captive population of Tennessee was raised at that meeting when the committee discussed populations that may have been overlooked.
“Understand that it would be a (public relations) nightmare, but a potential liability to the state,” says a document attributed to no one by name.
Later, in December, when the group met to discuss higher education in certain age groups, as well as teachers, inmates were rethought.
“If we are hit hard in prison, it will affect the entire community. Sickness leaves correction facilities and reenters society as inmates leave their sentences, ‘the document reads, adding that when inmates contract the disease, “ it is the taxpayers who have to pay the bill for treatment.’ ‘
Ultimately, correction workers and prison guards along with first responders were bumped into one of the earliest slots. Meanwhile, the prisoners remained in the last eligible group. Even now, older inmates who may qualify for the state’s age ratings are still not immunized.
Tennessee currently ranks 47th among the states in terms of the number of people vaccinated it in the total population. Of the 7 million people in the state, more than 14% have received at least one dose of the vaccine, while more than 7% have received both injections, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The state has become increasingly eligible for the vaccine in recent weeks. Starting next week, the vaccine will be available to people aged 16 and older with pre-existing conditions – such as cancer, hypertension, obesity and pregnancy – as well as to caregivers and residents of households where medically vulnerable children reside.