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NASHVILLE, Tennessee (AP) – A Tennessee advisory group tasked with deciding in which order residents should receive the COVID-19 vaccine has recognized that inmates in state prisons are at high risk, but concluded that giving them the priority for inoculation could be a “public relationship nightmare.”
The result: Prisoners are in the last group scheduled for vaccines in the state, even though the pandemic vaccine planning stakeholder group concluded that “if left untreated they will be a vector of transmission. of the general population, ”according to the panel’s closed-door meeting minutes. obtained by the Associated Press. To date, there is no precise timetable for the deployment of vaccines in prison.
The debate in Tennessee reflects a problem that states nationwide face when deploying life-saving vaccines: whether to prioritize a population seen by many at best as an afterthought, separate from the public and at worst as undeserving. The resistance arises even though medical experts have argued since the onset of the pandemic that prisoners are at an extremely high risk of infection given that they live in extremely close contact with each other and have little ability to relate to each other. socially distancing.
“It shows a lack of morality and a lack of empathy to allow someone to die or put them at greater risk because they happen to be incarcerated. … Before anyone was imprisoned, they were first and foremost 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 No Exceptions Prison Collective, a grassroots organization based in Nashville.
Just a few months ago, as COVID-19 cases increased in the United States, the Associated Press and Project Marshall documented cumulative rates of infection among prison populations. The analysis found that as of mid-December, 1 in 5 state and federal prisoners 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 in the general population.
Tennessee ranks 24th in the country for COVID-19 prisoner cases. To date, 1 in 3 inmates in the state – more than 38,800 in total – have tested positive for the virus since the epidemic began to spread almost a year ago. More than 40 inmates have died from COVID-19.
So far, the state has inoculated an unknown number of prison staff – Tennessee doesn’t release this information like other states do – but no prisoners. Twenty-four states have allowed at least part of their prison population to be vaccinated, including those who qualified according to state age guidelines or had pre-existing health conditions, according to data from the AP and the Marshall Project.
At times over the past year, some of the largest clusters of coronaviruses in the United States have been inside Tennessee prisons, with hundreds of active cases at multiple facilities.
In the spring, Trousdale Turner Correctional, a private prison run by Tennessee-based CoreCivic, saw about half of its 2,444 inmates tested positive for the coronavirus, while more than 1,100 inmates at the 1700-capacity South Central Correctional Center contracted. the virus. The state only reported 17 positive cases of detainees on Friday. The visit was suspended for months. The state’s prison population hovers around 30,000, with local prisons housing around 19,000.
Documents from the Pandemic Vaccine Planning Stakeholder Group meetings actually underscored the importance for the general public to see that inmates “are people” who should be treated as “part of the community” and ” if they are not treated, they will be a vector of transmission for the general population. Yet the documents admit that providing the vaccine to inmates would result in “numerous media inquiries.”
The panel includes around 40 public health agencies, lawmakers, healthcare coalitions, emergency management and other organizations. As he serves in an advisory capacity, Tennessee law does not require him to meet publicly, and no audio recordings of the meetings exist, according to the Department of Health. The AP obtained the meeting notes through a public record request.
According to the documents, the group first met, virtually, on September 22, before vaccines became available. The incarcerated population of Tennessee was brought up at this meeting, when the committee spoke of populations that could have been overlooked.
“Realize that this would be a (public relations) nightmare, but a possible liability to the state,” says a document, which is not attributed to anyone by name.
Later in December, when the group met to discuss the elevation of certain age groups, as well as teachers, inmates were again considered.
“If we are hit hard in prisons, it affects the whole community. The disease leaves the penitentiary establishments and reintegrates the society in general while the prisoners give up their sentence “, indicates the document, adding that when the prisoners contract the disease” it is the taxpayers who must bear the bill of the treatment.
Ultimately, corrections officers and jailers were sent back to one of the first time slots, alongside the first responders. During this time, inmates remained in the last eligible group. Even now, elderly inmates who can qualify under the state’s age requirements are still not vaccinated.
Tennessee currently ranks 47th among states in terms of the number of people vaccinated in the overall population. Of the state’s 7 million people, more than 14% have received at least one dose of the vaccine, while more than 7% have received both vaccines, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The state has increased vaccine eligibility in recent weeks. Starting next week, the vaccine will be available to people aged 16 and over who have pre-existing conditions – such as cancer, hypertension, obesity and pregnancy – as well as caregivers and residents. of households where medically fragile children reside.
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