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<title>Distribution trends spark controversy and put both equity and hope to the test</title>
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<p>A man dances down the hallway as he realizes the gravity of the situation—he was just administered the covid vaccine. His happiness is contagious to Phoebe Bartlett, a junior at Mt. Lebanon High School, who observes him as she too is getting the vaccine. Unfortunately, while there are exhilarating experiences like this man’s, simultaneously there are less successful efforts within the vaccine distribution process.</p>
<p>As social, racial, and economic equities are put into public scrutiny amidst Phase 1a of distribution in Pennsylvania, confusion still remains about the actual process. What are the phases?</p>
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<h4>Phase 1a</h4>
<p>Phase 1a (current phase) marks front line health care workers like nursing home residents and employees, elderly ages 65 and older, and immunocompromised individuals.</p>
<p>Allegheny County alone has vaccinated around 85,265 with the first dose according to Pittsburgh Action News and increasing. Approximately 40,892 have completed the process fully. In terms of basic economic principles, there is an extremely high demand and very low supply.</p>
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<h4>Phase 1b</h4>
<p>Phase 1b qualifies people of specific occupations in grocery stores, manufacturing, postal service, agricultural, and education services. While most education workers are positioned in Phase 1b, some are considered for being most at risk and able to be vaccinated like Mt. Lebanon teachers were on February fifth. For example, though Phoebe Barlett is only 16 years old and would have normally been vaccinated in Phase 2, she was eligible based on her job at Baptist Homes, a long term care facility.</p>
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<h4>Interviews</h4>
<p><q>I got my vaccine through my job because I work at a nursing home—I was automatically registered,</q> Bartlett said. <q>At first I was not allowed to get it because they only offered Moderna (which is not approved for people under 18) but then they started offering Pfizer.</q></p>
<p>With the two most prominent companies allocating the vaccine—Moderna and Pfizer—Bartlett experienced a relatively smooth process.</p>
<p><q>They set a date and specific time where all healthcare workers could come in and get vaccinated, which was so easy,</q> she said. <q>Everyone was so happy and talking about how lucky we were to be able to get it at such convenience.</q></p>
<p>Similarly, Camille Neemes, an 81-year-old from Mt. Lebanon, living in the Pendale Towers apartments, also underwent an efficient experience, but at the cost of her younger son's persistent searching and assistance.</p>
<p>As the aging population makes up the majority of qualifiers for the vaccine, the actual registration process is almost all online and naturally causes problems for the non-tech savvy.</p>
<p><q>A lot of people in this building don’t even have a laptop,</q> Neemes said.</p>
<p>In some cases, the vaccine allocation is described as the lottery system—some get immediate responses back from the clinic and others not so lucky.</p>
<p>While Neemes traveled 30 minutes away to Monroville and Bartlett to Baptist Homes, sites can remain far or near based on the type of distribution being patchwork versus centralized.Â
<p>Patchwork systems break down sites into smaller, widespread clinics and centralized systems have one mass concentrated center. Distance and transportation then become problems. For example, as a site in Washington Heights, New York City was opened primarily for the Latino community, an initial wave of white people traveled far distances to claim their doses ahead of others because of better access to transportation and technology.</p>
<p>While one such instance shows economic and social inequity, medical disenfranchisement has also been brought to the limelight. Should smokers or people diagnosed with obesity be placed ahead of educational workers? Should prisoners be vaccinated? As The Guardian put it, <q>Whose lives matter most?</q></p>
<p><q>I believe that all healthcare workers need to be vaccinated as soon as possible, but those in jail should not be overlooked,<q> Bartlett said. <q>They are also human and in an environment where social distancing and precautions are hard to follow.</q></p>
<p>As the vaccine, compared to feeling like a flu-shot by Neemes, continues to cause an emerging tension to its efficiency and equality, general hope for what’s to come is felt as well.
<p><q>The nurses I usually work with were in the best mood I have seen them, and doctors administering the process were so kind and made it go so easy,</q> Bartlett said. <q>Getting the vaccine has made me so hopeful for when everyone gets it and we can slowly get back to normalcy.</q></p>
<p>In terms of local successes, St. Clair Hospital recently administered 80 vaccines to the low-income elderly body at St. Thomas More apartment complex in Bethel Park. The economically privileged may naturally place themselves first on the long list, though, as hospitals race to keep up with high demands, they also are targeting the homebound by mobilizing the vaccine like St. Clair. Instead of making people come to the vaccine, the vaccine is being brought to them.</p>
<p>As frustration intensifies, St. Clair Hospital may have accomplished serving under-priviledged communities, but the country as a whole is far from mastering it. </p>
<p>Rural areas, communities of color, and even mountainous regions or ones that are separated by rivers globally become the hardest spots to reach. In response, Biden continues to prompt equity in distribution, though the 52% of racial data collected by the CDC of vaccinated people according to a New York Times article limits what can actually be predicted and prevented.</p>
<p>With refusal of some states to collect data based on ethnicity and race, reforming what is suspected—that the Black and Latino communities are displaced from vaccine allocation—is incredibly difficult. Even then, states like New York are secretive in sharing data.
<p>As white people push ahead for the vaccine in areas they don’t even live in, communities of color are propelled back further. So not only is the system brewing confusion, frustration, and fear, but also mistrust, inequity, and false promises. What is being tossed around as a <q>colorblind vaccine</q> only provokes even more racial inequity as race, then, is not considered as a factor when that is exactly what it needs to be.</p>
<p>So the question becomes, how do we reform something that is still in progress and unknown? Is hope on the horizon for all people?</p>
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