COVID vaccines: Prisoners excluded from US plans

Coronavirus outbreaks in prisons and jails in the United States have been widespread. But inmates have been neglected as policymakers determine who should be prioritized for vaccinations.

Inmates of US prisons and jails have largely been left behind as the country rolls out its first set of COVID-19 vaccines. Public health experts and advocates have been pushing for states and the federal government to make this vulnerable population a priority.

More than 1.3 million people

are incarcerated in the United States. One tracking project reported more than 270,000 cases and more than 1,700 deaths in

the prison system since April. Inmates are twice as likely to die from the coronavirus as the general population, and 19 of the top 20 hot spots in the US are inside prisons, according to the National Commission on COVID-19 and Criminal Justice. Poor living conditions and overpopulation have exacerbated the problem.

"They have been the source of so many cases because they are a confined population, because they can't do social separation," Dr. William Schaffner, professor of preventive medicine and health policy at Vanderbilt University, told DW. "They are a high-risk circumstance."

Health experts warn that the consequences could be disastrous if nothing is done to mitigate infections among the incar

cerated. The American Medical Association had recommended inmates and correctional workers "should be prioritized in receiving access" to the vaccines in the first phase of inoculations.

Still, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

Conditions in prisons make preventing the spread of the virus especially difficult

Prisoners face a high risk of getting COVID-19 in US facilities