He told her that there were about 15 to 20 other inmates in his cell and that they cut off their shirts to use as face masks. He mentioned that his throat hurt.
“My uncle was a strong man,” said Lara. “He still had life inside him. And I feel like it was taken from him.”
Rodriguez is one of hundreds of thousands of people who have been infected with Covid-19 within the country’s prisons and prisons – and among hundreds of people who have died.
“If we just look at the epidemiology of Covid-19 where the outbreaks occurred, it’s really hard to ignore chains and prisons,” says Lauren Brinkley-Rubinstein, assistant professor of social medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and co-founder of the project. “They have really been the epicenter in many ways.”
As the pandemic enters a new chapter, with two Covid-19 vaccines authorized in the United States market, leading public health professionals are calling for incarcerated people and prison staff to be prioritized in vaccinations. It is the nation’s moral responsibility, several experts told CNN, but also a measure that will help the recovery of other communities.
“Prisons and prisons are not a place apart, they are very connected to the communities they are in,” said Brinkley-Rubinstein. “We have employees and people who are released from prison and from prison, leaving the correctional space for their communities of origin. And if you have exposure in prisons or jail, you are likely to take that exposure to the surrounding community. ”
But, weeks after vaccination started in the United States, state leaders offered few details about the vaccination of prison facilities – and their prioritization differs enormously across the country.
Many fear that – amid an already slow release of vaccines – hard-hit prisons and prisons, and those who live and work there, will fall behind.
Small cells, little PPE and growing infections
“If you look at the living areas – cells, for example – there may be a 15 square meter cell with two people in it. You cannot socially distance yourself in a cell this size,” said Michele Deitch, of the lead study author, previously told CNN. “It’s an open bathroom next to the bunk bed. All the things you want to do to take precautions in the outside world, you can’t do it there.”
“The internal conditions are horrible,” said Rena Karefa-Johnson, campaign and defense director at the Essie Justice Group. “Incarcerated people should have the same access to the vaccine, level of care and opportunity as people outside.”
Protective equipment was also not enough for the team and often “it’s still a struggle” to get some, said Jeff Ormsby, executive director of the AFSCME Texas Corrections Union.
“We are hearing problems all the time about policemen having to wear the same mask for 10 to 15 days,” he said. “Be sent to quarantine units without the proper equipment.”
Many public health experts have called for vaccine priority
“All the arguments that anyone would offer to prioritize people living in long-term institutions also apply to prisons,” she said. “It is mysterious to me why there would be any distinction.”
Many other health professionals agree.
“It is not only people who have committed serious crimes against society, violent crimes, that are affected here. It’s also people who are jailed for getting fines and fines for being late and for minor drug charges, ”said Crystal Watson, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Health Security Center. “We have a responsibility to ensure that your health is protected, just as we do with the rest of the population.”
And prioritizing chains and prisons would also mean helping the country to recover more quickly from the pandemic, experts say.
“If we initially have a limited supply of the vaccine, we are trying to get the greatest return on our investment,” said Dolovich. “As a public health issue, it seems obvious that we would include incarcerated people and prison officials in the highest priority distribution.”
“If you really care about what is spreading in your community, you need to worry about what is going on in prisons,” said Krish Gundu, co-founder and executive director of the grassroots defense group Texas Jail Project. “This is exactly where this virus will be kept alive.”
Officials, she added, entering and leaving the facility and then mixing with their home communities, have been “supervectors” for the virus.
“It is very difficult because generally, when you walk out of the prison door to go home, you are returning to your family,” said Ormsby, with the prison officers’ union. “You may be taking the virus home to your family now.”
Different plans, different priorities
Some officials say they followed the experts’ recommendations.
On January 7, the governor announced the state’s final vaccination distribution request, placing people who live and work in prison centers in the second of the five phases.
“As we do with 65 (years) or older, I think it would include prisoners who are in that category,” he said. “There is no way to go to prisoners before going to people who have not committed any crime.”
“What I would like to ask state legislators, US congressmen and senators and everyone else who has anything to do with this vaccine,” said Ormsby, with the prison officers’ union, “they would send their family members to work in a prison without it? ”
Even though the CDC’s recommendations did not place the incarcerated populations at a specific stage, Dolovich says that this does not mean that these populations are not included in the age groups in which they fall.
“There are prisoners over 75 years old and living on a long-term basis, which, by the way, is … (of the CDC) the number one priority. There are people over 65 years old. people of other ages with health problems. “
“We should say, ‘These are the groups most at risk, these are the national priorities, and it should be irrelevant where you live, whether you are going to get the vaccine,'” she added.