Race and ethnicity may be deciding factors in essential workers getting vaccine prioritization

I suspect this won't end well.

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Race and ethnicity could be the deciding factors in determining whether essential workers will be second in line for vaccination for the novel coronavirus.

Defenders of this position say COVID-19 harms a higher percentage of racial and ethnic minorities, and so they should be prioritized by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, the body within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention charged with constructing a plan for allocating the vaccine. The committee is set to unveil its recommendations Tuesday.

"If you look at the burden of disease and death in the U.S., it is disproportionately impacting communities of color," Grace Lee, a member of ACIP and professor of pediatrics at Stanford University School of Medicine, told the Washington Examiner. "It is heartbreaking to realize how much of the social and racial inequities that exist impact the health of these communities."

Critics contend that it amounts to racial discrimination.

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