How the Covid-19 Vaccine Affects the Minority Community

Edited by Catherine Verdeflor

With a Covid-19 vaccine, hope has been brought to the world. No more social-distancing? No more masks? No more sanitizing? The vaccine is just the first step to reestablishing society. We cannot immediately go back to our everyday lifestyles — it will take time before everything goes back to normal. Despite this, a Covid-19 vaccine proves to many that their future may not be so bleak. The vaccine supplies many with the strength to keep fighting, mainly minority communities that have been hit hardest because of the pandemic. However, the arrival of a vaccine has made healthcare professionals struggle over administration strategies. One heavily debated question is whether it is ethical for healthcare professionals to prioritize minority communities for vaccine administration.

Minority communities have struggled due to the pandemic and have suffered from immense losses. To have a better perspective, one can compare non-Hispanic White individuals' mortality rates to the mortality rates of communities of color. According to the JAMA Network, non-Hispanic White individuals have a mortality rate of 38/100,000 (Schmidt et al., 2020, para. 3). In contrast, the mortality rates for Black, Indigenous and Latinx, Pacific Islander, and Asian individuals are “131/100,000,” “125/100,000,” “111/100,000,” and “50/100,000,” respectively (Schmidt et al., 2020, para. 3). This discrepancy in mortality rates fortifies why health professionals want to prioritize racial communities — to help those who need it the most.

According to ABC News, those who received the vaccine first are "health care personnel who are treating patients, including those working and living in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities" (Rivas, 2020, para. 11). The following groups who would be receiving the vaccine are the elderly, children, immunocompromised patients, and those who cannot be protected by herd immunity. However, what happens next? How do they make these decisions? According to the JAMA Network, individuals who "are more dependent on regular income with little or no retirement or other savings, and less able to work remotely... are more likely to live with multiple generations in close proximity and... [are] less able to [social] distance at home, at work, and while commuting to work” (Schmidt et al., 2020, para. 4) As a result, they are at a “greater risk of contracting and spreading severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus" (Schmidt et al., 2020, para. 4). Furthermore, social justice claims argue that due to these disadvantages, minority communities "have experienced...higher rates of COVID-19–related unemployment, housing evictions, and hospitalizations" (Schmidt et al., 2020, para. 5). Thus, people should consider prioritizing vaccine administration to minority communities because ignoring these factors could only worsen the effects.

Whether it is lawful and ethical to consider racial allocations of vaccinations, the US Supreme Court must review legal standards. In US history, "there is no direct precedent in which courts have considered race in allocating scarce health care resources" — the closest has been decisions made in the university admission process and school rulings (Schmidt et al., 2020, para. 8). If the US Supreme Court agrees to racial allocation, it would be to make right past and present acts of racial discrimination in favor of black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) through a policy known as "reverse discrimination" (Schmidt et al., 2020, para. 8). However, the US Supreme Court has recently been leaning towards requiring health professionals to meet strict standards to reduce racial consideration of BIPOC because they wish to "use means other than race to achieve equitable outcomes" of vaccine administration (Schmidt et al., 2020, para. 10). Additionally, it is argued that ways to reduce racial discrimination can be met through other means.

Though the US Supreme Court is not likely to consider prioritizing minority communities for vaccine administration during the Covid-19 pandemic, people should not lose hope. Vaccines are still making these unprecedented times not so bleak. There is still hope for family, friends, and communities to return to everyday life some time in the future. We may not know when; however, we do know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. As long as we reach out towards that light, there is still hope for the United States — and the rest of the world.

References:

Rivas, A. Minority Communities’ Distrust of COVID-19 Vaccine Poses Challenge. ABC News. Retrieved from abcnews.go.com/US/minority-communities-distrust-covid-19-vaccine-poses-challenge/story?id=74503429

Schmidt, H., Gostin, L., & Williams, M. (14 October 2020). “Is It Lawful and Ethical to Prioritize Racial Minorities for COVID-19 Vaccines?” JAMA Network, 324(20), 2023-2024. doi:10.1001/jama.2020.20571

‌[Untitled image of a patient receiving a vaccine]. AARP. https://www.aarp.org/health/conditions-treatments/info-2020/range-of-subjects-in-vaccine-trials.html