https://archive.vn/Z7Y2e Jason Compson‏ @JCompson_III 18 Dec 2020

Yes. Here's a recent presentation from the CDC on vaccine implementation: Notice that they express concern over the "ethical principle" that white people are too overrepresented among adults >65, relative to the more diverse essential workers.

https://archive.vn/IOM7z https://web.archive.org/web/20201218081246/https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/acip/meetings/downloads/slides-2020-11/COVID-04-Dooling.pdf

Racial and ethnic minority groups under-represented among adults >65

https://archive.vn/ZRIwG Jason Compson‏ @JCompson_III 17 Dec 2020

Wow. In the @nytimes, a doctor explains why the CDC chose to de-emphasize the elderly, even though doing so would've saved lives: "Older populations are whiter...Instead of giving add'l health benefits to those who already had them, we can start to level the playing field a bit"

Later in the piece another doctor, named Marc Lipsitch, explains that teachers should not be considered essential workers for the purpose of being given priority vaccines by the CDC because, and I quote, "they are often very white."

A third expert, an economist named Elise Gould, counters Dr. Lipsitch that teachers should be prioritized. Why? Because the families they teach are disproportionately "Black and Brown", and those groups would benefit more than white people.

So to sum up, in this single article by @JanHoffmanNYT, three experts--Schdmit, Lipsitch, and Gould-- say that more white people dying will "level the playing field", teachers are "too white" to deserve a vaccine, but that their "Black and Brown" students make them deserving.

https://archive.vn/pTNfd Marc Lipsitch‏Verified account @mlipsitch 18 Dec 2020

As I have written elsewhere when this story came out, I think teachers are essential workers but they are not disproportionately low-income or minority. That is what I said and what the quote says.

https://archive.vn/T8Yzk Reopening Primary Schools during the Pandemic | NEJM

I also have stated that I think teachers should be higher priority than most essential workers because having teachers and kids back in school would be so crucial to returning our society to full functioning.

https://archive.vn/VM5IJ Marc Lipsitch‏Verified account @mlipsitch 18 Dec 2020

My quote does not use the word essential, on purpose. They are essential, are not the ones to prioritize for equity reasons, apart from the points made by others about how their absence enhances inequity.

I'm done with this exchange which seems to be about picking a fight rather than understanding. The NEJM article I linked to above cites many reasons why closed schools disproportionately harm those who are already worst off, on many dimensions. Opening would help with that. Done.

Infectious disease epidemiologist and microbiologist, aspirational barista. [email protected] Director @CCDD_HSPH  Boston, MA

https://archive.vn/JQQf1 hsph harvard edu/marc-lipsitch/ Marc Lipsitch Professor of Epidemiology Department of Epidemiology

https://archive.vn/xsjxW 18 Dec 2020 21:19:08 UTC nyt

The Elderly vs. Essential Workers: Who Should Get the Coronavirus Vaccine First?

The C.D.C. will soon decide which group to recommend next, and the debate over the trade-offs is growing heated. Ultimately, states will determine whom to include.

By Abby Goodnough and Jan Hoffman

Published Dec. 5, 2020 Updated Dec. 15, 2020

Marc Lipsitch, an infectious-disease epidemiologist at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, argued that teachers should not be included as essential workers, if a central goal of the committee is to reduce health inequities.

“Teachers have middle-class salaries, are very often white, and they have college degrees,” he said. “Of course they should be treated better, but they are not among the most mistreated of workers.”

Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, disagreed. Teachers not only ensure that children don’t fall further behind in their education, she said, but are also critical to the work force at large.

“When you talk about disproportionate impact and you’re concerned about people getting back into the labor force, many are mothers, and they will have a harder time if their children don’t have a reliable place to go,” she said. “And if you think generally about people who have jobs where they can’t telework, they are disproportionately Black and brown. They’ll have more of a challenge when child care is an issue.”

Harald Schmidt, an expert in ethics and health policy at the University of Pennsylvania, said that it is reasonable to put essential workers ahead of older adults, given their risks, and that they are disproportionately minorities. “Older populations are whiter, ” Dr. Schmidt said. “Society is structured in a way that enables them to live longer. Instead of giving additional health benefits to those who already had more of them, we can start to level the playing field a bit.”

Bonus meme:

Remember when the CDC cheered the Biden presidential win?

https://archive.vn/kGubK nbc-2

CDC on Biden transition: ‘This is what we’ve been waiting for’

by CNN — November 25, 2020

WASHINGTON / CNN — Leaders at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are anticipating the Biden transition team and the change a new administration will bring, senior health officials said.

“This is what we’ve been waiting for is for them to send their landing team here and set up shop,” a senior CDC official said Tuesday following the ascertainment declaration from the General Services Administration.

They told us "moderate" President Joe Biden and his "moderate" administration, will surely stop this progressive racialism, Soon™.