As COVID vaccines are being rolled out, an extremely vulnerable group is being overlooked: millions of cancer patients. Doctors sound the alarm that many state governments and the federal advisory committee tasked with prioritizing who gets vaccinated should move cancer patients to the front of the line, right after the residents of the residences and front-line health workers. Right now, it is considered a lower priority than that of “essential workers,” such as firefighters, public transportation employees, even supermarket employees.
However, cancer patients are being decimated by COVID-19. New data from 360 U.S. hospitals show that cancer patients are at higher risk of contracting the disease than the rest of the population. Once infected, they are almost twice as likely to need hospitalization.
Even worse, they are three times more likely to die than other hospitalized COVID-19 patients, according to new results in the journal JAMA Oncology.
New York pulmonologist Daniel Libby explains that cancer patients are likely to become infected frequently because they usually visit doctors ’offices. In addition, their “defenses are low,” meaning their immune system is weaker.
This week, the Lung Cancer Consortium COVID, a group of oncologists, is asking federals to re-examine priorities and pay “specific attention to this vulnerable population.”
Governor Cuomo should do the same. Last week, Cuomo launched the “Working Group on Vaccine Equity,” which included immigrant advocates, civil rights leaders, tenants’ associations, labor groups and churches, most of whom are political allies of the United States. governor. But no anti-cancer organization made the list.
“We’re talking about who gets vaccinated now, and let me be clear, there’s no policy in the vaccination process,” Cuomo says. This is hard to believe, Governor, given who is part of the working group and who is missing.
In New York and most states, cancer patients are ignored. The American Society of Clinical Oncology and the American Cancer Society urged the federal advisory committee to make vaccination of cancer patients a top priority, but the committee’s recommendation, announced Dec. 20, gave priority to essential workers. and to persons 75 years of age or older to be the following. This means that most cancer patients have to wait more months.
Fred Hirsch, a renowned lung cancer specialist at Mount Sinai Medical Center, is investigating whether the weakened immune system of cancer patients will cause them to produce fewer antibodies when vaccinated.
They may need more shots: three shots or even four, instead of the two shots currently prescribed for Pfizer and Moderna shots. More reasons to start them.
Meanwhile, in New York, politically connected unions representing traffic workers and supermarket employees are calling on state officials and pushing for them to be considered “essential workers.”
But cancer doctors complain that they are in the dark about who to call or when to get vaccinated. Ditto for doctors treating patients with other diseases. A Westchester woman tells me she is worried about her husband. He is 71 years old, has type 1 diabetes and two heart stents and travels to Gotham, in the North Underground. Their doctors do not know when they will receive the vaccines. She says, “I can’t believe 20-year-old supermarket workers have it before him.”
Both the federal immunization committee and Cuomo advocate prioritizing “essential workers,” because it will mean vaccinating more minorities. Cuomo states that “black, Hispanic, Asian and low-income communities paid the highest price during COVID-19.” It is a politically appropriate exaggeration.
According to the data, COVIDs have affected minorities a little more than other people. In New York State, excluding the Big Apple, Hispanics make up 12% of the population and 12% of deaths from COVID, while blacks make up 9% of the population and 15% of deaths . In New York City, blacks and Hispanic minorities have suffered proportionately more casualties than whites, but only by a few percentage points. Asians experienced fewer deaths (7%) than their 14% population share.
COVID is a killer with equal opportunities. He is sacrificing cancer patients, regardless of their skin color.
Betsy McCaughey is a former lieutenant governor of New York.