I have no anecdotal evidence on racial disparities to report.

I just know that, here in the heart of red-state-land, people still need to work hard to get an appointment, and not everyone is eligible.

I also know that, just recently, it was announced that the Navajo Nation was the first place in the country to announce that anyone who wanted a vaccine could get one.

I am just glad you are getting vaccinated, Cindy. The more people that get the shot the better off we all are.

I only see the divide in willingness to get the vaccine, based on intelligence, and religious wackery. No other factors weigh as heavy in my anecdotal evidence.

Are you saying there is no moral component to deciding whether to get the vaccine? In other words, if you know the rules say you are not yet eligible but you have a "hook up," you would have no ethical qualms about using your privilege or influence to get this scarce resource to which you are not entitled?

As for the idea that getting vaccinated helps us all . . . not under these circumstances.

If a person like me, who is not entitled and is not an essential worker or first responder, declines the vaccine, the vaccine is not thrown in the trash. It is given to someone with greater need.

So if I decline the vaccine, and a CVS worker who would expose hundreds of customers if she got the virus get the vaccine I declined, we are all better off, right?

Anyway, that's the dilemma. I have three days to summon the courage to back out. The professional consequences would be real. I am not sure I can stomach them, and I feel really bad about that because I ought to have more courage of my convictions than that. I know others who did declined the vaccine under these circumstances, but they don't have professional consequences to consider.

Hello Cindy, I get that you have good and honorable intentions, just that when I try to look at the odds, I think the chances of you declining the vaccine “making a difference” for others at this stage is miniscule. Chances of a “front line worker,” who has to be unvaccinated yet and old enough and/or have preexisting health conditions to derive tangible benefits from a vaccine that you give up, to actually get the dose of vaccine you give up is extremely small.

I’ve got to believe that you, with your job, can do more real good serving the people in the courtrooms in person (compared to doing your job through video conferencing), more than enough to compensate for the very small trade off of letting some anonymous stranger take “your” dose of the vaccine.

In short, when it comes to serving the society, my view is that you can make a much bigger difference by doing your job in court in person than you can by giving up a vaccine dose now.

Good luck with whichever way you decide.

quote:

Are you saying there is no moral component to deciding whether to get the vaccine? In other words, if you know the rules say you are not yet eligible but you have a "hook up," you would have no ethical qualms about using your privilege or influence to get this scarce resource to which you are not entitled?

Mr. SK is definitely not comfortable "skipping the line." I teach in person, so he's at risk of getting it from me (albeit it's a small risk, I've had my first shot and wear a mask in the classroom etc.) Some people on FB have said that, down here anyway, CVS esp. does not check any credentials when you show up for the vaccine, but Mr. SK said that under no circumstances does he want to get it until it's his turn.

quote:

Originally posted by Cindysphinx:
Are you saying there is no moral component to deciding whether to get the vaccine? In other words, if you know the rules say you are not yet eligible but you have a "hook up," you would have no ethical qualms about using your privilege or influence to get this scarce resource to which you are not entitled?

Absolutely not! I am patiently waiting to be counted among the "eligible". No line cutting here.

It's currently "my turn", but nothing is available, though in the city there are opportunities for "black and brown" community members to access vaccines based on zip code...

I'm ok with that because those parts of the city were much harder hit.

quote:

Originally posted by Cindysphinx:
Here is a 538 explanation of what blacks are getting vaccinated at lower rates.

It is NOT because they don’t want it.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/fe...o-its-not-hesitancy/

Very sloppy for 538. The only stat they mention is that 61% of blacks are willing to be vaccinated, oddly implying that therefore hesitancy isn’t a factor.


But the equivalent figure (in the same poll they cite) for other ethnicities ranges from the 70s to 90s. That gap guarantees the ‘equity’ problem will persist even if every other challenge 538 mentions is overcome.


Edit: Hadn’t seen that PD beat me to it.

Another interesting thing about the Pew poll - women are quite a bit more likely than men to say they won’t get one (34% vs 28%).

In one sense it isn’t surprising because in the pre-Covid world women are far more likely to be antivaxxers. But given the partisan skew for this one I thought it might even out.

quote:

Originally posted by QuirtEvans:
I have no anecdotal evidence on racial disparities to report.

Not even in any fora you frequent? lol

Cindy - can you reasonably put it off for a month or so? Maybe tell the Judge you're staying out of the area until the end of April or whatever?

Then by the time the month was up supply should be much, much better and far more people would have had a chance to get vaccinated.

quote:

Originally posted by jon-nyc:

quote:

Originally posted by Cindysphinx:
Here is a 538 explanation of what blacks are getting vaccinated at lower rates.

It is NOT because they don’t want it.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/fe...o-its-not-hesitancy/

Very sloppy for 538. The only stat they mention is that 61% of blacks are willing to be vaccinated, oddly implying that therefore hesitancy isn’t a factor.


But the equivalent figure (in the same poll they cite) for other ethnicities ranges from the 70s to 90s. That gap guarantees the ‘equity’ problem will persist even if every other challenge 538 mentions is overcome.


Edit: Hadn’t seen that PD beat me to it.

I'm not sure why you're discounting the other variables besides "desire to get the vaccine." (or trust or whatever). And which Pew survey? The one done in Nov 2020? I think it's important to realize that widespread vaccinations didn't exist in November 2020, so if you have a general distrust for government's role in health care (as many Blacks do) it stands to reason that as the vaccine is rolled out at a large scale with few bad outcomes, you might want the vaccine now, whereas you were dubious late last year. Toss in the chance that you may know people who have been successfully vaccinated and confidence goes up as well. The same Pew study (assuming we're talking about the same one, in Nov 2020) also indicated that a majority of Americans would be uncomfortable being one of the first to get vaccinated (no breakout for ethnicity in this one that I can see).

Or maybe there's a more recent Pew survey you all are referring to?

The one Cindy refers to in the 538 article ...

quote:

Originally posted by Mary Anna:
I just saw this on Twitter and it seemed pertinent to the conversation.

"There is little difference between white and Black Americans on reluctance to take the coronavirus vaccine, a new NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll finds.

73% of Black people and 70% of white people say they plan to get the vaccine or have done so already."

Are we ignoring this poll I posted because it is of low quality?

I actually don't know. I just copied the whole tweet, figuring that some of y'all would have an opinion.