The Healthcare Express Line

With a triad of covid-19 variants from Omicron to the less successful Delta-Variant to the newer hybrid Omicron XE variant, President Biden dutifully rolled up his sleeves for his 2nd Covid-19 booster shot.

However, skeptics protested to the end of time before the booster, the highly controversial Covid-19 vaccine. Some even refused organ transplants, all to not receiving a potentially life-saving vaccine. So, given the high risks in treating covid patients, should doctors prioritize vaccinated patients over unvaccinated patients? Is that ethical?

No. Prioritizing vaccinated vs. unvaccinated patients further stimulates a system that heavily neglects marginalized communities.

Now, this idea is limited to a certain extent. Those populations with immediate access, the medical advantage, and privilege but refuse the vaccine in the name of personal choice are acting for selfish reasons that could endanger the community, especially healthcare workers.

However, populations that don’t have reliable access to vaccinations shouldn’t be reprimanded for being unvaccinated for factors out of their control.

As of April 2022, 59% of white people have gotten at least the first dose of the vaccine. However, only 10% of Black Americans received at least one dose, and Hispanic people make up a slightly larger share of 21% of vaccinated people.

These staggering numbers only show the apparent disparities within the healthcare system against people of color. Within communities of color, there are high levels of mistrust from historical events like the Tuskegee experiment that intentionally killed black males to the Madrigal v. Quilligan case, where physicians authorized forced sterilization against Mexican women in Los Angeles.

These incidents are not a one-off; through systemic racism, the healthcare system in the United States is rigged against people of color, so can we really use that against saving their lives during a covid crisis?

Again, the people who have access to the vaccine but use excuses like “religious exemptions” when no major religion has rules against taking the vaccine most likely fallen into deep conspiracy theories spewed by Alex Jones and are selfish.

This issue of patient treatment does not have a clear-cut answer, but it’s evident that rejecting patients based on a systemic problem is not the answer. Looking at trends relating to minority groups and medical care, it's clear that many communities of color face more obstacles and less accessibility to receive quality care than white populations.

The communities with the lowest amount of vaccination rates are notable in less affluent and with high populations of people of color. Trends show that it's harder to receive the vaccine within those communities from circumstances such as not having the luxury of waiting in line for hours, taking time off work, or awareness of the vaccine. Medical physicians and experts can not ethically ignore unvaccinated patients due to the systemic issues that are in control for marginalized communities.

Knowing what we know about these medical trends, prioritizing vaccinated over unvaccinated patients continues the cycle of distrust and medical endangerment against people of color. How could patients be punished if they never had the opportunity or the option to receive the vaccine? It would be unethical as doctors and nurses, and other medical workers took an oath to protect and care for all patients; this is a promise to communities that in a medical emergency that they would receive care no matter what the circumstances are.

It's unethical to punish unvaccinated people, as most of the unvaccinated population are people facing adversity and injustice in the medical field. Whether it be something simple as a general checkup to childbirth, marginalized communities never receive equal treatment to their white counterparts.

While unvaccinated patients could potentially spread the disease to healthcare workers, we can not, in good conscience, ignore the systemic racism that has fueled a system where communities of color are ignored.

If this nation wants to create more trust, access, and education within communities of color about medicine and vaccines, it starts with equal care.

Without equal care, we are allowing the system to continue for people of privilege to receive the best treatment and care when millions of others will be suffering.

Instead of rejecting unvaccinated patients, the medical community can work on many ways to improve outreach, from going into the communities with low vaccination rates and educating citizens about the impact and protection to hiring more physicians of color.

We can not ignore the deeply rooted systemic racism and structural disadvantages that people of color face, and the covid vaccine is just one of many.