Government Needs Plan for Distributing Virus Vaccine to Minorities

The government has relaxed its standards on coronavirus treatments to speed the production of a vaccine, but it still lacks a plan for distributing the eventual vaccine to all communities, particularly ones that have been previously overlooked.

Nancy Messonnier, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's immunization and respiratory disease center, told Politico: “I feel already behind.”

“We’ve got a situation where FDA [Food and Drug Administration] standards have been relaxed in order to bring these new therapies into the marketplace quicker, and we all want them to be successful. But the groundwork has not been laid to persuade minority populations that they need to accept those vaccines,” added Gary Puckrein, head of the nonprofit National Minority Quality Forum, which aims to eliminate the disparities that affect racial and ethnic minorities, among others.

He also stressed the importance of equal representation in clinical trials to avoid the implication to minority communities that they are thought of a “guinea pigs” to test treatments.

“The way that translates to the minority community is that we should be the guinea pigs to take this drug, and see if we grow horns — and if we don’t grow any horns, then we can give it to everybody else,” Puckrein said.

“We have a number of hurdles in terms of broad vaccine coverage but also specifically the people we most want to vaccinate in the African American and Latinx communities that are hardest hit with the disease,” said Julie Gerberding, an executive vice president at pharmaceutical company Merck and former director of the CDC.

According to Politico, public health experts recommend diverse clinical trials for vaccines, and for health officials to engage with communities that have been underserved in the past, and to work with local organizations like churches and other religious groups that have relationships with people in their communities.

“Education should start now,” said Macaya Douoguih, who is in charge of clinical development at the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson. “I think the communities that are disproportionately affected might require more engagement and that is a long process that needs to start now so that they can even consider participating in clinical trials.”

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