SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Who Gets a Vaccine First? U.S. Considers Race in Coronavirus Plans:
Federal health officials are already trying to decide who will get the first doses of any effective coronavirus vaccines, which could be on the market this winter but could require many additional months to become widely available to Americans.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and an advisory committee of outside health experts in April began working on a ranking system for what may be an extended rollout in the United States. According to a preliminary plan, any approved vaccines would be offered to vital medical and national security officials first, and then to other essential workers and those considered at high risk — the elderly instead of children, people with underlying conditions instead of the relatively healthy.
Agency officials and the advisers are also considering what has become a contentious option: putting Black and Latino people, who have disproportionately fallen victim to Covid-19, ahead of others in the population.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 05 2020, @01:34AM (1 child)
If there are racial preferences in the vaccine distribution, anyone who was denied vaccination because of their race will have a pretty swell civil case. I can't believe that in 2020 I can say "denied vaccination because of their race" about current events. I thought we left that behind 70 years ago.
Vaccine priority must go in order of actual, scientifically and medically defined need. First the health care workers, then the participants in the trials who got placebos, then people according to their risk factors. This will probably mean that more minorities receive the vaccine early on, because there are more minorities in high risk jobs, and with conditions such as heart disease and diabetes. There are also whites in the same circumstances. They should all be treated equally. The virus doesn't care about your skin color and that means the vaccine can't afford to.
It's no different than the old 90s debate over racial quotas in hiring. It was wrong then, and it's wrong now.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 05 2020, @05:27AM
How apt of you to mention the debate over racial quotas in the 90s. Much like how the recent advocacy of racially exclusive "safe spaces" rolls back the hard-earned progress against segregation, there are still ongoing efforts to legalize judging of people by the color of their skin instead of the content of their character.