Health Equity Should Drive Vaccine Distribution

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Weekly Column Thursday, December 24, 2020


** Health Equity Should Drive Vaccine Distribution
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By Amy Goodman and Denis Moynihan

The Winter Solstice, the darkest day of the year, has passed, but the darkest days of the coronavirus pandemic are likely still to come. COVID-19 has killed more than 320,000 people in the U.S., with almost 18 million cases. Deaths and hospitalizations shatter records on a daily basis. While two vaccines have been approved for use in the United States, initial shipments are falling short of the expected doses. African American, Latinx and Native American communities have been hit disproportionately hard by the pandemic, suffering a convergence of systemic racism, lack of access to adequate health care, and, all too often, proximity to pollution sources that heighten the risks posed by COVID-19.

“What we should focus on is equity distribution,” Dr. Taison Bell, critical care and infectious disease physician at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, said on the Democracy Now! news hour, not long after receiving his first shot of the Pfizer vaccine. “Thinking about our highest-risk providers…providing frontline COVID care.”

Dr. Bell, who is African American, explained in a New Yorker Magazine interview how, during the protests that exploded following the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis Police...Read More→ ([link removed])
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** Related
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Black Critical Care Dr. Taison Bell of UVA on Fighting COVID, Racism & Securing Fair Vaccine Access ([link removed])
More than 40 countries have temporarily suspended some or all travel from the United Kingdom after British...Read More → ([link removed])

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