Democrats spar over COVID-19 vaccine strategy
Publicly, House Democrats are largely united behind a simple message surrounding COVID-19 vaccines: Get one as soon as you can and take whichever one is offered.
Yet behind the scenes, Democratic leaders and rank-and-file members are at odds over their strategy, a disagreement rooted in growing concerns that the new, slightly less effective one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine might be sent disproportionately to vulnerable minority communities.
“I do not think that there should be any effort that focuses on distributing one specific type of vaccine to one specific community,” said Rep. Karen Bass
Karen Ruth BassHouse approves George Floyd Justice in Policing Act House sets vote for George Floyd police reform bill Lobbying world MORE (D-Calif.), a former healthcare worker and community organizer in Los Angeles who led the Congressional Black Caucus last cycle.
“All three vaccines are great. All three vaccines should be sent to all communities,” she told The Hill. “One vaccine should not be sent to inner cities.”
Speaker Nancy Pelosi
Nancy PelosiPelosi says Capitol riot was one of the most difficult moments of her career Hillary Clinton calls for women to ‘repair’ COVID-19’s ‘damage’ on women’s rights Republicans’ stonewall forces Democrats to pull bill honoring Capitol Police MORE (D-Calif.) has sided with those Black Caucus leaders, arguing on a recent conference call that underserved communities, including Black and brown populations, should get to pick which vaccine they receive, according to sources on the call.
But on the same call, Rep. Kim Schrier
Kimberly (Kim) Merle SchrierDemocrats point fingers on whether Capitol rioters had inside help Rep. Kim Schrier defends Washington House seat from GOP challenger House approves .2T COVID-19 relief bill as White House talks stall MORE (D-Wash.), a pediatrician, issued a stern warning to her colleagues that demanding choice would not only buck the advice of public health experts and muddle the Democrats’ vaccine message, it would also heighten the the doubts of many Americans already skeptical about taking vaccines — doubts that threaten the arrival of herd immunity and a return to social normalcy.
The Democrats’ message, Schrier said, should be clear and simple: All vaccines are good. And the best thing American can do to protect themselves and their loved ones is to get a shot. Any shot.
Minutes later, Pelosi came back on the line and defended her position that people should have a choice, the sources said.
“It was a tenser exchange than we usually have in these meetings,” said one House Democrat on the call.
Asked about the exchange, Pelosi spokesman Henry Connelly said the Speaker was simply reflecting concerns in her diverse caucus about whether minority communities were being treated equitably in the aggressive push to vaccinate all Americans.
“The Speaker was giving voice to concerns being raised by Members about the clear equity issues at stake for communities of color with the distribution of the J&J vaccine and the historically-rooted fear of being treated differently than other populations, while still recognizing its success in preventing deaths and hospitalizations,” Connelly said in a statement.
“The Speaker will continue to work to ensure that decisions about the deployment of each of the vaccines protect historically disadvantaged communities and are based in the science.”
The disagreement among Democrats comes during a pivotal moment in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic as states like Texas and Mississippi end their mask mandates and lift restrictions on businesses, and health experts worry about a surge in cases driven by COVID-19 variants.
It also comes amid a raging national debate over systemic racial inequity, relating to policing and economics but also glaring health disparities. Blacks are nearly three times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 than whites and nearly two times more likely to die from the disease; Hispanics are more than three times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 than whites and 3.2 times more likely to die.
The racial disparities are also reflected in vaccination efforts. Whites have been vaccinated for COVID-19 at two times the rate of Blacks, according to a New York Times analysis. The figures are worse for Hispanics.
That disparity has been attributed, in part, to the fact that the earlier Moderna and Pfizer vaccines each require two shots and colder refrigeration, complicating storage and distribution. That’s created additional barriers for getting the vaccine to poorer, historically underserved populations and rural communities.
Because the new Johnson & Johnson vaccine requires only one shot and regular refrigeration levels, some officials like New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) have ordered that shipments of the J&J vaccine be prioritized for harder-to-reach Black and brown communities.
The J&J vaccine, like the Pfizer and Moderna…