The role the race should play in deciding who would get priority for the Covid-19 vaccine in the next phase of the launch is being tested in Oregon, as tensions over equity and access to gunfire emerge across the country., reports Gillian Flaccus for the Associated Press.
An advisory committee that provides recommendations to the Oregon governor and public health authorities will vote later today on whether to prioritize people of color, target those with chronic illnesses, or focus on some combination of groups with more coronavirus risk. Others are also being considered, such as essential workers, refugees, interns and people under the age of 65 living in group settings.
The 27-member committee in Oregon, a state run by a democracy that is overwhelmingly white, was formed with the goal of keeping justice at the center of its vaccine implementation. Its members were selected to include racial minorities and ethnic groups, from Somali refugees to Pacific islands to tribes. The committee’s recommendations are not binding, but they provide critical input for Gov. Kate Brown and guide health authorities in drafting the release.
“It’s about revealing the structural racism that remains hidden. It influenced the disparities we experienced before the pandemic and exacerbated the disparities we experienced during the pandemic, ”said Kelly Gonzales, a member of the Cherokee nation of Oklahoma and expert on the health disparities committee.
The virus has disproportionately affected people of color. Last week, the Biden administration reiterated the importance of including “social vulnerability” in state vaccination plans with race, ethnicity, and rural-urban division at the forefront, and called on states that would identify “pharmacy deserts” where they would be difficult to fire at gunpoint.
Overall, 18 states included ways to measure equity in their original vaccine distribution plans last fall and have probably done so more since the shootings began, said Harald Schmidt, an ethical physician at the University of Pennsylvania that has studied vaccine justice thoroughly.
Some, like Tennessee, proposed reserving 5 percent of their allocation for “high-disadvantaged areas,” while states like Ohio plan to use social vulnerability factors to decide where to distribute the vaccine, he said.
Attempts to address inequalities in access to vaccines have already provoked adverse reactions in some places. Recently, Dallas authorities reversed the decision to prioritize the most vulnerable zip codes, primarily color communities, after Texas threatened to reduce the city’s vaccine supply. This type of setback is likely to become more pronounced as states move forward and struggle with difficult questions about need and lack of supply.
To avoid legal challenges, almost all states that consider race and ethnicity in their vaccination plans resort to a tool called a “social vulnerability index” or “disadvantage index”. Such an index includes more than a dozen data, from income to education level, to health outcomes, to vehicle ownership, to target disadvantaged populations without specifically citing the race or ethnicity.
“The question is not, ‘We want to make sure the Obama family gets the vaccine before the Clinton family. We don’t care. We can both wait safely,” he said. of meat packaging in a crowded life situation get it first. It’s not about race, it’s about race and disadvantage. “