Infectious disease specialist Anthony Fauci highlighted the need to address racial disparities in the COVID-19 vaccination process, in an interview with The New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday.
What is he saying: “I think that’s the only thing we really need to be careful about. We don’t want it at the beginning … most of the people who are doing it are, well, white middle-class people.”
“Do you really want to take this 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 situation is, who don’t have access to the vaccine. “
- “You absolutely have to respect the hesitation of the minority population. They keep coming back and telling the Tuskegee story, “said Biden’s chief physician, referring to a situation in the 1930s when the federal government denied black men in Alabama treatment for 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 a shame. “
- Biden’s chief medical advisor noted that health authorities must convince people of color “that the safeguards that have been in place since then … would make it essentially impossible for a Tuskegee situation to arise again. “
The big picture: In the 16 states that released vaccination data by race, white residents were vaccinated at rates that are two or three times higher than black residents, writes Caitlin Owens de Axios.
- People of color are at a higher risk of getting coronavirus and also have higher COVID-related mortality rates than white people.
- Communities of color also tend to have fewer pharmacies per capita, making vaccination more difficult, and they are suspicious of the process due to past medical negligence.
- Immigrants who are not fluent in English face additional barriers to access.
Go deeper: Black communities lagging behind in America’s vaccination effort