2021年经济学人 新冠疫苗难防美国“种族病”(1)（在线收听）

United States

美国版块

Vaccinations

疫苗

Access denied

拒绝使用

Inoculating non-whites is the first step to reducing vaccine hesitation

为非白人接种疫苗是减少疫苗犹豫的第一步

The biden administration has pledged to deliver 150m covid-19 vaccinations within the president’s first 100 days in office, but who should get those shots? Most states are prioritising frontline health-care workers and long-term care-home residents, followed by people aged 75 or older and essential workers. Few states are making sure African-Americans or Hispanics get vaccinated, even though they are three times more likely to die from the virus than whites. In fact minorities may be at the back of the queue for something that is of great value to all Americans.

拜登政府承诺在担任总统的前100天内提供1.5亿剂新冠疫苗，但哪些人应该接种疫苗呢？大多数州优先考虑一线医护人员和常住疗养院的居民，其次是75岁及以上的老人和必要工作人员。很少有州会确保非裔美国人或西班牙裔人接种疫苗，尽管他们死于新冠的可能性是白人的三倍。事实上，少数族裔可能排在对所有美国人来说都很有价值的事情的后面。

In Memphis, Tennessee, in mid-January, all 10,800 vaccine appointments were claimed before those without internet access could sign up by phone; but black and Hispanic Americans are less likely to have internet access. Location is also a barrier in some instances. In Suffolk County, Massachusetts, which includes Boston, 46% of white residents live in a census tract within one mile of a vaccination site, compared with only 14% of black residents and 26% of Hispanic residents. “If the goal is to help reduce the suffering and the death particularly experienced by black, Latino, and older communities, then...everybody should be focusing their vaccination efforts on reaching those groups,” says Nina Schwalbe of Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. This has not been the case, however.

1月中旬，在田纳西州孟菲斯，在那些无法上网的人能够通过电话报名之前，所有的1.08万支疫苗早已全部被预约了；但是黑人和西班牙裔美国人不太可能有机会上网。在某些情况下，位置也是障碍。在马萨诸塞州（波士顿位于马萨诸塞州）萨福克县，46%的白人居民居住在距离疫苗接种地点一英里以内的人口普查区，相比之下，黑人居民只有14%，西班牙裔居民只有26%。哥伦比亚大学邮差公共卫生学院的尼娜·施瓦尔贝表示：“如果美国的目标是帮助减少黑人、拉丁美洲人和老年人遭受的痛苦和死亡，那么，疫苗的接种重点应该放在这些群体身上。”。然而，情况并非如此。

In early January New York City announced new vaccination sites in the Bronx and Queens, predominantly minority areas. But the mass-vaccination centres at Citi Field and Yankee Stadium delayed their openings because of low supplies, while many other sites closed. In Dallas, Texas, health officials attempted to give vaccinations first to residents living in predominantly minority zip codes, but state officials threatened to revoke vaccine allocation if they were not distributed to all eligible people regardless of race.

1月初，纽约市宣布在布朗克斯和皇后区（主要是少数族裔地区）设立新的疫苗接种点。但花旗球场和扬基球场的大规模疫苗接种中心由于供应不足而推迟开放，而其他许多疫苗接种点则关闭。在得克萨斯州达拉斯，卫生官员试图首先给居住在少数族裔地区的居民接种疫苗，但州政府官员威胁称，如果不把疫苗分发给所有符合条件的人（不分种族），就将取消疫苗分配。