Yesterday President Joe Biden officially informed Americans about common sense guidelines already being practiced: they don't have to wear masks outdoors.
But during his full remarks on the status of the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic, Biden bizarrely celebrated more "seniors of color" being vaccinated than whites.
"Two-thirds of our seniors are fully vaccinated. More than 80 percent of our seniors have had a least one shot. That effort resulted in a drop of 80 percent in deaths in seniors. A 70 percent drop in hopsitlizations," Biden said. "By the way, based on reported data a proportion of seniors who have been vaccinated is essentially equal between white and seniors of color. I said from the beginning we were going to fight this virus with equity, equity for all. In fact, if I'm not mistaken there are more Latinos and African-American seniors that have been vaccinated as a percentage than white seniors. These numbers are a sign of process on that front as well."
Back in December, the CDC was taking guidance from leftist professors about vaccine distribution. Many of them advocated the prioritization of vaccines should be based on skin color, not on who is at most risk -- the elderly -- of dying from the disease.
An independent committee of medical experts that advises the C.D.C. on immunization practices will soon vote on whom to recommend for the second phase of vaccination — “Phase 1b.” In a meeting last month, all voting members of the committee indicated support for putting essential workers ahead of people 65 and older and those with high-risk health conditions.
Historically, the committee relied on scientific evidence to inform its decisions. But now the members are weighing social justice concerns as well, noted Lisa A. Prosser, a professor of health policy and decision sciences at the University of Michigan.
“To me the issue of ethics is very significant, very important for this country,” Dr. Peter Szilagyi, a committee member and a pediatrics professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, said at the time, “and clearly favors the essential worker group because of the high proportion of minority, low-income and low-education workers among essential workers.”
That position runs counter to frameworks proposed by the World Health Organization, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and many countries, which say that reducing deaths should be the unequivocal priority and that older and sicker people should thus go before the workers, a view shared by many in public health and medicine.
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