President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris held a ceremony at the White House on Monday to honor the lives lost due to COVID-19. In one year, more than 500,000 people have died from the virus. Despite that grim remembrance, there is an end in sight.
The Food and Drug Administration is set to approve the Johnson & Johnson vaccine for emergency use, so it can join Pfizer and Moderna as another tool to fight the pandemic. The stringent vaccine requirements that remain aren’t helping the situation. Neither are conversations about “equity.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued recommendations about vaccine distribution. Most, if not all, states have structured their administration around that, giving priority to those over the age of 65 after vaccinating healthcare workers, other front-line workers, and long-term care facility residents.
Once those deemed “essential” have been vaccinated, there is little reason to prioritize further. Extending this pandemic any further is detrimental to our collective physical, mental, emotional, and economic health.
As of Feb. 23, there have been 82,114,370 vaccine doses distributed and 65,032,083 doses administered. These numbers reflect both first and second doses. This is excellent progress, but much work remains.
Ideally, vaccination sites should be open to all individuals, regardless of age or infirmity. This should happen immediately. If the need exists, strict requirements and limited windows of opportunity only hamper the process.
One doctor in Houston was recently fired for giving out extra doses of the vaccine to what his government job considered the wrong people. He found himself with 10 expiring doses of the vaccine and gave them to his wife and others with medical conditions. After he told his superiors, he was sent packing. One of them “startled him by questioning the lack of ‘equity’ among those he had vaccinated,” the New York Times reports. This is just the kind of absurdity that will slow down the process of getting as many people vaccinated as soon as possible.
While older individuals and those who are immunocompromised may be more likely to get and/or suffer from COVID-19, it is likely that the younger, healthier population spreads the virus around in the first place. As young people are more mobile, it makes sense to vaccinate them just as much as their parents and grandparents. Waiting for several months to address younger age brackets that have just as much of a part to play in the pandemic is detrimental to everybody else.
Additionally, talk of inequitable vaccine distribution among races as some form of discrimination unnecessarily complicates the issue. According to the CDC, cases, hospitalizations, and deaths for Native American, Alaska Native, Asian, black or African American, or Latino people are higher than their white or non-Hispanic peers. There are many factors, including health and economic status, to account for the disparity. Demographic data for those who have received the vaccine are incomplete, but the data that have been collected show a much higher percentage of white and non-Hispanic vaccine recipients. However, this does not mean there is an underlying current of racism at play.
The uncomfortable truth is that getting a vaccination is still an entirely voluntary process (though many people are still struggling to nab an appointment).
Making a conscious decision to be vaccinated should be the only requirement. Vaccines must be widely distributed and administered with no concern for age, race, health, or economic status. As each individual is a potential carrier or sufferer, restrictions that go beyond healthcare and front-line workers continue to be unwise. More than that, they may extend the crisis further.
Kimberly Ross (@SouthernKeeks) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog and a columnist at Arc Digital.
