Prisoners in the state of Tennessee were placed last on the eligibility list for the COVID-19 vaccine after an advisory board feared a “public relations nightmare” if they had priority access, the Associated Press reported.
According to the report, published on Saturday, the Pandemic Vaccine Planning Stakeholder group, the council charged with making recommendations for the launch of the vaccine in the state, noted that incarcerated people would be “a vector for transmission of the general population” if left ” no treatment”.
The advisory board met for the first time in September 2020 and consists of 40 public health agencies, health coalitions, civil servants, emergency management and other organizations, according to the Associated Press report.
Some prison officials have been vaccinated, according to the report, but the exact number in the state of Tennessee is not publicly available. No prisoners have been vaccinated yet, according to the report.
The Tennessee Department of Health did not immediately return Insider’s request for comment on Saturday.
Tennessee’s vaccination plan includes people incarcerated in Phase 3 of their vaccination plan, behind health professionals, first responders, teachers, people with high-risk conditions, and staff from prison institutions. Prisoners who are currently eligible to receive the vaccine because of their age have not yet been vaccinated, according to the AP report on Saturday.
Documents obtained by the Associated Press showed that the advisory board concluded that there would be “a lot of investigations in the media” if it chose to prioritize immunization for incarcerated people, although it said the prisoners “were part of the community,” according to the report.
During the pandemic, people incarcerated in the United States were at increased risk of contracting the new coronavirus, while advocates complained about conditions in jails and prisons that put prisoners at high risk.
In July 2020, the Journal of the American Medical Association found that prisoners were infected with COVID-19 at a rate five times higher than the general population. In December, a report by The Marshall Project and the AP found that 1 in 5 prisoners in the United States had contracted COVID-19, compared with about 1 in 20 people in the general population. More than 1,700 inmates died from the virus, also as of December.
In Tennessee, one in three prisoners tested positive for COVID-19, according to data from the AP and the Marshall Project.
The Associated Press report on Saturday emphasizes the long debate over the launch of the COVID-19 vaccine in the United States and, in particular, the launch of vaccines in incarcerated populations. Although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued general guidelines, states ultimately control the vaccine’s eligibility.