White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeffrey Zients on Sunday shared the Biden administration’s concerns with vaccine inequity, particularly in communities of color that have been “disproportionately” hard hit by the pandemic.
During an interview on “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Zients was asked whether he plans to intervene on issues related to COVID-19 vaccine inequity. Anchor Chuck Todd cited inequity to COVID-19 vaccine access in different wards in Washington, D.C., with the African American community in Ward 8 running low on supply.
Zients acknowledged that disparities in vaccine distribution are prevalent throughout country and are “unacceptable,” especially in communities of color that have been hit “disproportionately hard” by the infectious disease, suffering death rates twice the average.
“So it’s really, really important that when we come to vaccine distribution, that we do it in a fair and equitable way,” Zients said. The situation that you’re describing is not fair and equitable.”
Zients outlined the need to deliver vaccines to people where they are, and argued that community health centers are instrumental in doing so because they serve over 30 million Americans. Zients pointed to President Biden setting up a program to send vaccines directly to community health centers as well as the administration using mobile units and pharmacies to serve hard hit communities.
“So the new federal programs are all established and run with equity first and foremost in mind,” Zients said. “We are holding states and governors accountable for fair and equitable distribution of the vaccine.”
Zients went on to reiterate the difficulty in accessing COVID-19 vaccines for “too many Americans,” especially people of color.
Zients noted that in addition to increasing COVID-19 vaccine supplies, improvements on “confusing” websites and increasing call centers or other ways to schedule a vaccine are needed.
“We’re working with states to make that situation better. Many governors and states have improved their access. But we need equal access across the board,” Zients said. “We need to fix this problem. We need to hold ourselves accountable to both speed and efficiency, but fairness and equity in the distribution of the vaccine.”
Zients’ remarks follow White House press secretary Jen Psaki expressing concerns over vaccine hesitancy last week, saying that although the President expects that there will be enough vaccines for all Americans by the end of May, the country will eventually reach a point where there is more supply than demand.
Psaki particularly emphasized the Biden administration’s concerns over vaccine hesitancy in communities of color where there has been a higher level of that sentiment.
Psaki then pointed to a health equity task force led by Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith of Yale aimed at addressing racial and ethnic disparities in health care access. The White House press secretary said that the federal task force will be responsible for closely examining issues related to vaccine hesitancy, and it plans to reach out to communities that may be skeptical of vaccine safety and efficacy.
Makes you feel particularly sorry for the underserved POC communities in states with GQP Governors, gleefully trashing mask mandates, occupancy limits, and other sensible precautions, all in the name of FreeDumb.
How much of this is a function of having prioritized the elderly instead of those who are exposed to large numbers of people as essential workers on a daily basis?
Full disclosure, I am neither, so I’ll be last in line either way.
POC make up a large percentage of workers in senior care, I’m going to go out on a limb and hope that they were vaccinated at the same time as residents. As for getting the elderly vaccinated first that is the most vulnerable population.
Then you have the rural population that lacks access to most healthcare, essential workers are urban, suburban, and rural,
Trying to figure out the one shoe fits all isn’t going to work, but then you have governors that have their heads up their asses.
I guess create a plan, try to stick with, but be able to roll with obstacles.
There’s an inherent conflict between the desire to protect the most vulnerable and the desire to end the pandemic as quickly as possible. Prioritizing essential workers (including senior care workers!) services the latter more effectively. Retirees have an easier time limiting their exposure than urban workers by orders of magnitude. Working in an urban environment is riskier than rural (especially commuting on public transpo) and the trend in the states with the most inequity has been rural (red) populations before (blue) urban ones.
I enjoy the luxury of working from home so my exposure has been near nil.
Then again, there’s Ron “Jab for Bucks” deSantis.