FROM A FORMER CLASSMATE OF MINE AT SWARTHMORE --- He is a 79 year old cardiologist in New York City
So you want to know who should get the vaccine and why. You can go on the NYS DOH website and see what they say. Here is a snapshot: "The first New Yorkers to receive the vaccine will be high-risk hospital workers (emergency room workers, ICU staff and Pulmonary Department staff), nursing home residents, nursing home staff, followed by all long-term and congregate care residents and staff, EMS workers, other health care workers, coroners and medical examiners. Staff at every hospital will have access to the first vaccine allocation." What this leaves out is more interesting than what is included. For example, what about incarcerated people and those who work in the US gulag who must go back and forth from work to home. What about the most underserved and vulnerable people, Black, Brown, and poor working class people in general? I am on staff at a hospital. I work from home. At 79yo I am more at risk but I am safely ensconced in my home doing telemedicine and I have ready access to the best PPE. Yet I got vaccinated Wednesday. I pointed out that there were people not being vaccinated much more vulnerable than I. Needless to say, the network did not offer to give my vaccine to a more vulnerable person. Let me quote to you from William Foege, MD MPH CDC director 1977-1983 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2774047: <https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2774047:I> "I think one of the big surprises in our report, since this is a disease that is hurting minorities more than others, is that people thought we would come out with minorities or the elderly as the first group to get the vaccine. With minorities, we do not say the problem is race. The problem is racism. And if you look at the individual risks of people who are minorities, then like the majorities, 3 are at the top of the list: heart failure, kidney failure, and a body mass index over 40.So what if you aim at those things, and then you look at the social vulnerabilities? What does it mean to live with 3 generations in a house, the inability to work from home, every day having to face the virus, having problems with transportation, school children coming in and out? And so, we said let's look at the risk factors and make those the decision point for getting vaccine rather than saying race. The virus doesn't understand race, color; it does understand vulnerabilities." Where is the CDC and the FDA? Why is this racist society not doing what it should be doing, targeting the most vulnerable? Why are another 150,000 people likely to die in the next two months? What will it take for people to understand that this country, our planet, require a much more fundamental change than simply changing presidents from a psychopath to the same old same old? Our future and the future of our children and grandchildren depends on the answer to this question. If you have been reading these messages, you know what I think. Have as good a New Year as possible. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#4921): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/4921 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/79268540/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
