Fauci: COVID vaccine rollout must prioritize people of color



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Infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci has emphasized the need to address racial disparities in the COVID-19 vaccination process, according to an interview with the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday.

What he says: “I think that’s the only thing we really need to be careful about. We don’t want to start out … most of the people who get it are otherwise, well, middle class white people.”

“You really want to pass it on to people who are really the most vulnerable … you don’t want to have a situation where the people who really need it, because of where they are, where they live, what their economic status is, what they don’t do not have access to the vaccine. “

  • “You must absolutely respect the reluctance of the minority population. They keep coming back and telling the Tuskegee story, ā€¯Biden’s chief medical officer said, referring to a situation in the 1930s in which the federal government denied black men in Alabama treatment for it. syphilis and secretly documented how the disease destroyed their bodies for decades.
  • “They don’t, can’t and shouldn’t forget it, because it happened and it was shameful. “
  • Biden’s chief medical adviser noted that health officials need to convince people of color that the safeguards that have been in place since then … would make it next to impossible for a Tuskegee situation to reappear. “

The big picture: In the 16 states that have published vaccination data by race, white residents have been vaccinated at rates that are often two or three times higher than black residents, writes Caitlin Owens of Axios.

  • People of color are at a higher risk of contracting the coronavirus and also have higher COVID-related death rates than whites.
  • Communities of color also tend to have fewer pharmacies per capita, making vaccination more difficult, and they are wary of the process due to past poor medical practices.
  • Immigrants who are not fluent in English face additional barriers to access.

Go further: Communities of color lagging behind in U.S. vaccination effort

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