An ethics professor at the University of Pennsylvania has sparked a heated debate, suggesting that key workers should be given priority for the coronavirus vaccine over vulnerable older people, as workers are more likely to be minorities.
“Older populations are whiter,” Harald Schmidt told the New York Times. “Society is structured in a way that allows them to live longer. Instead of offering additional health benefits to those who have already had several of them, we can start leveling the playing field a little. “
Centers for Disease Control should use its own “social vulnerability index” to decide how to protect older people who are more at risk, Schmidt said. The index uses census measures such as poverty, unemployment, disabilities, housing and education to determine which communities are most likely to feel the impact of a public health emergency. At least 18 states plan to use the index, he told The Times.
At least 221,000 of those who died from COVID-19 were over 65, or about 80 percent of all deaths by Wednesday, according to CDC data. Those over the age of 85 are 630 times more likely to die from the virus than those between the ages of 18 and 29.
CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield said he believes priority should be given to people over the age of 70 who live with children or grandchildren, the Daily Mail reported.
New York nursing homes are expected to receive vaccines starting Monday.
Schmidt’s comments have provoked criticism from those who have stressed that nursing home residents cannot distance themselves socially and can be of all ages.
“It is good to first vaccinate essential and front-line workers,” said the commentator. Brenda Tippin, who identifies himself as a biologist. “But you had to work out and identify the older population as ‘whiter’ and show this as an assumption that they had more privileged lives and their time to balance the conditions of the game. Unforgivable!”
Others argued that older people who have been isolated for months are “literally dying of loneliness” and that he argued that older people “are not just non-essential; they are actually quite consumable ”.
His Twitter mentions were filled with memes that said things like “Old Live Matter” and screenshots showing a chart that puts white men with the shortest life expectancy at 76.71 years.
“I don’t understand how you can be considered an ethics teacher,” posted a user with the Portia Smith handle. “Your vision of the world is nothing but. Terrible.”