[graciegirl]

Originally Posted by blueash

It is part of the role of the ACIP and the CDC to be sure that medical care is not delivered first to white people because they are white people. If you are familiar with the Tuskegee experiment where the United States Government deliberately chose to not treat Black people for syphilis when a treatment was available just so they could watch and see how many died or were made blind, demented, deafened or otherwise harmed by the disease. The CDC was part of that shameful event which continued to not treat Black people for 40 years. This was not a one or two year study. Because of that racist act endorsed by the US Public Health service, the CDC, and the US government, the ACIP and the CDC now try to determine whether what they are doing is fair to all groups and take into account how their acts might inadvertently impact communities of color.

For example if the CDC said we will send vaccine to private practicing physicians first to administer to their patients. That sounds fair until you understand that minorities are much less likely to have a private physician. Looking for that kind of unintentional impact of decisions is what is meant by the lines you cited.

Additionally if a disease is hitting a particular community harder then resources to combat that disease should be directed in a greater amount to that community. Should sickle cell resources be allocated evenly across all racial groups? What about lead poisoning? What about hypertension? If a disease is more severe in one racial group should the CDC be certain that its policies promote justice by ensuring that plans don't disadvantage that group?

Lastly you cherry picked a part of sentences thus leaving a false impression that race or ethnicity was unfairly being used to make decisions. It is of course the exact opposite. For those that have read this far, go read the whole section HERE and go to the bottom where the CDC discusses the ethical issues that are considered in its recommendations.

Your clipped sentence "Although racial and ethnic minority groups are underrepresented among persons >65 years" is part of a longer discussion which you ignored thus misinforming the readers on this website. The longer discussion informs the reader that there are difficulties in getting this vaccine into underserved communities because of its extreme storage and handling requirements. Further it points out that in the over 65 age group while there are fewer POC, the disease is more severe in those POC over age 65.

The CDC is saying that even though there are fewer POC over 65 it is more important to have policies to reach them as they are more likely to get seriously ill or die from Covid. Identifying high risk groups and minimizing health inequalities are exactly what they are charged with doing.



No matter how you read the CDC's recommendations, it is still true that Dr. Winston's post was completely wrong, without sources, and a fine example of how conspiracy theories spread on the internet.

Dr. Winston Boogie? What post? Usually he is quite reasonable and does not buy into conspiracy theories. I will have to go and look. He is usually a dependable and reliable source of information.