Black People Face Higher COVID Infections & Deaths. Should They Have Lower Age Cutoffs for Vaccines?

As the U.S. vaccine rollout continues to expand, health justice advocates worry about a racial gap in vaccinations. Black communities have been hard hit by the pandemic, but rates of vaccination in communities of color lag behind largely white communities across the country. Dr. Oni Blackstock, a primary care and HIV physician, argues that age cutoffs should be lowered or removed for Black people in order to speed up inoculations, noting that Black Americans are twice as likely to die from COVID-19 as white Americans and also dying at rates similar to those of white Americans who are 10 years older. These fixed-age cutoffs that most states implemented did not take into account structural racism's toll on Black life expectancy in addition to the impact of the pandemic on the life expectancy of Black people in this country," says Dr. Blackstock.