Vaccination efforts are ostracizing the most vulnerable

Last Monday, Gov. Ned Lamont announced the state’s guidelines to vaccinate Connecticut residents. Starting March 1, people over 55 and teachers will be eligible to sign up to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Following this group of Connecticut residents, his plan allows for a new group of people to register every three weeks. This arbitrary system leaves many of the state’s most vulnerable residents without access to the much-anticipated vaccine for weeks and even months.

Families like mine are among those affected by this decision. My household includes my mother, a 62-year-old woman who is an essential worker with type 2 diabetes; my brother, a 23-year-old retail worker; and me, a 26-yearold educator with type 1 diabetes. During the past year, our biggest concern about this pandemic was for any of us to be exposed to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. We knew that due to the status of my brother and mother as essential workers, they would be the most likely to be exposed while they fulfilled their work duties away from home. Along with that, my mother and myself are both at a higher risk of developing complications if an infection were to happen.

The American Diabetes Association as well as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention state that folks with various preexisting conditions such as type 1 and type 2 diabetes are at a higher risk of developing potentially fatal complications with additional long-term detrimental effects for a person’s health.

When the news of a vaccine being approved and readied to be distributed, many of us celebrated and became hopeful at a time when the uncertainty of our survival was the cause of extreme anxiety. For months, members of the disabled community watched horrified at the government’s failure to contain and control the spread of COVID-19. We saw many of our friends and loved ones become ill and die, while wondering if even our strict precautions wouldn’t be enough to save our lives.

Diabetes and other high-risk conditions affect communities differently. Black, Latinx and Indigenous communities are at a statistical higher risk of living with one or more pre-existing conditions. They are also more likely to be denied access to quality health care and regular checkups. In Connecticut, undocumented immigrants are the largest subgroup of people who lack medical insurance and a lot of the times must rely on emergency services to be able to see a doctor. It is also these communities that are at the greatest risk of exposure as many are considered essential workers.

Lamont’s guideline to ignore the realities of working-class minorities in the state is a slap on the face of these communities. Lamont said: “The last thing we want to do is complicate the process for them and cause delays that slow things down and exacerbate issues regarding equitable access,” yet this plan does exactly that. In the age of COVID, those who are at most risk should be prioritized, rather than be subjected to arbitrary guidelines. Adding insult to the injury, claiming that it is difficult to figure out a different, more equitable way to protect vulnerable residents of Connecticut is lazy and morally corrupt.

Families like mine are exhausted from having to wonder if we will be exposed when one of us goes to work. Families like mine are exhausted from having to think and plan about what we could do when the virus finally reaches our household. Families like mine are exhausted.

Governor Lamont and the rest of his administration must make it a priority to modify the current guidelines for ones that will truly protect Connecticut’s most impacted residents. To do that, government officials must face the ugly reality of working-class residents and the systems that have failed to protect not only us in Connecticut, but 500,000 Americans and millions more who have suffered the effects of COVID-19 in the last year.

Do better.