Anthony Fauci, an expert on infectious diseases, stressed the need to address racial differences in the COVID-19 vaccination process, according to an interview with The New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday.
What he says: “I think it’s the one thing we really have to watch out for. We don’t want to in the beginning … most people who get it are different, well, middle-class whites.”
‘You really want to get it from the people which is really the most vulnerable … you do not want a situation in which people really need it, because of where they are, where they live, what their economic status is, what they do not have access to the vaccine . “
- ‘You must absolutely respect the hesitation of the minority population. They keep coming back and telling the story of Tuskegee, ‘said Biden’s chief medical officer, referring to a situation in the 1930s in which the federal government denied black men in Alabama the treatment of syphilis and secretly documented how the disease destroyed their bodies over decades.
- ‘They do not, can and should not forget about 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 guarantees that have been put in place since then … would make it essentially impossible for a situation in Tuskegee. ‘
The whole picture: In the 16 countries that announced the vaccinations by race, white residents were vaccinated at rates that are often two or three times higher than the residents of Black, writes Caitlin Owens of Axios.
- People of color have a higher risk of contracting the coronavirus and also have higher COVID-related mortality rates than white people.
- Colored communities also tend to have fewer pharmacies per capita, making it more difficult to be vaccinated, and distrust the process due to past medical malpractices.
- Immigrants who are not fluent in English have additional barriers to entry.
Go deeper: Communities of color falling behind in America’s vaccination