NASHVILLE, Tennessee (AP) – A Tennessee advisory panel tasked with deciding in what order residents should receive the COVID-19 vaccine has acknowledged that inmates in the state are at high risk, but has come to the conclusion came that they can “prioritize a public for vaccination. relations nightmare.”
The result: Prisoners are in the last group planned for vaccines in the state, although the group interested in Pandemic Vaccine Planning has concluded that ‘if left untreated, it will be a vector of general population transmission’, according to records of the panel’s closed door meetings obtained by The Associated Press. To date, there is no fixed timeline for the introduction of prison vaccines.
The Tennessee debate reflects a problem facing states nationwide as they roll out life-saving vaccines: or a population that is considered by many to be at best an afterthought, separate from the public and at worst as non-earning, must prioritize. The resistance comes even though medical experts have argued since the beginning of the pandemic that prisoners are at an extremely high risk of infection, as they have extremely close contact with each other and that they have little social distance.
‘It shows a lack of morality and a lack of empathy to allow someone to die or to be exposed to a greater risk because they were accidentally locked up. “Before anyone was ever captured, it was someone’s child, mother, brother, father or sister, and they remain so and they must be regarded, cared for and regarded as such,” said Jeannie Alexander, executive director of the No Exceptions Prison Collective, a grassroots organization in Nashville.
Just a few months ago, while COVID-19 cases were rising across the US, The Associated Press and The Marshall Project increased the cumulative infection rates among prison populations. The analysis found that as of December 1, 1 in 5 state and federal inmates in the United States had tested positive for the coronavirus, a rate more than four times higher than the general population. Cases have declined since then, but still remain higher than the general population.
Tennessee ranks 24th in the country for COVID-19 prisoner cases. To date, 1 in 3 of the state’s inmates – more than 38,800 in total – have tested positive for the virus since the outbreak began spreading almost a year ago. More than 40 prisoners have died from COVID-19.
So far, the state has vaccinated an unknown number of correctional personnel – Tennessee does not disclose the information like other states – but no inmates. Twenty-four states allowed at least some of their inmates to be vaccinated, including those who qualified according to the state’s age guidelines, or who already had pre-existing health conditions according to the AP and Marshall project data.
Sometimes the past year has seen some of the United States’ largest coronavirus clusters in Tennessee’s prisons, with hundreds of active cases in various facilities.
In the spring, Trousdale Turner Correctional, a private prison run by CoreCivic in Tennessee, saw that about half of its 2,444 inmates tested positive for coronavirus, while more than 1,100 inmates at the 1700 capacity of South Central Correctional Facility that contracted the virus. As of Friday, the state has reported only 17 positive prisoner cases. Visits remain suspended for months. The state’s prison population hangs around 30,000, with local prisons having about 19,000 residents.
Documents from the meetings of the group Pandemic Vaccine Planning Stakeholder, indeed, emphasized how important it is for the general public to see that prisoners are people who should be treated as part of the community and ‘if left untreated, it will a vector of general transfer of the population. However, the documents admit that the supply of the vaccine to prisoners will lead to ‘many media inquiries’.
The panel consists of about 40 public health institutions, legislators, health care coalitions, emergency management and other organizations. Because it serves in an advisory capacity, it is not required by Tennessee law to meet in public, and according to the Department of Health, there are no audio recordings of the meetings. The AP obtained the meeting notes through a public record request.
According to the documents, the group met for the first time on September 22 before vaccines became available. Tennessee’s captive population came up during the meeting when the committee spoke about populations that may have been overlooked.
“Understand it would be a (public relations) nightmare, but a possible liability to the state,” reads one document not attributed to anyone by name.
Later, in December, when the group met to discuss the discussion of certain age groups as well as teachers, prisoners are reconsidered.
“When we get hit hard in prisons, it affects the whole community. Illness leaves correctional facilities and repeats the general society while prisoners leave their sentencing, ”reads the document, adding that when prisoners contract the disease,“ it is the taxpayers who have to take the bill for treatment. ”
Eventually, correctional workers and prison guards were bumped into one of the earliest places along with the first reaction. Meanwhile, prisoners remained in the last suitable group. Senior prisoners who may qualify according to the age qualifications of the state are still not vaccinated.
Tennessee is currently 47th among states in terms of the number of people it has vaccinated in the total population. Of the 7 million people in the state, more than 14% received at least one dose of the vaccine, while more than 7% received both shots, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The state has increased over the past few weeks for the vaccine. From next week, the vaccine will be available to people aged 16 and older who already have pre-existing conditions – such as cancer, high blood pressure, obesity and pregnancy – as well as caregivers and residents of households where medically fragile children live.