Federal prisons to prioritize staff to receive virus vaccine

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Source: AP

WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal prison system will be among the first government agencies to receive the coronavirus vaccine, though initial allotments of the vaccine will be given to staff and not to inmates, even though sickened prisoners vastly outnumber sickened staff, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.

Officials at the federal Bureau of Prisons have been instructing wardens and other staff members to prepare to receive the vaccine within weeks, according to people familiar with the matter. The people could not discuss the matter publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

The internal Bureau of Prisons documents, obtained by the AP, say initial allotments of the vaccine “will be reserved for staff.” It was not immediately clear how many doses would be made available to the Bureau of Prisons.

As of Monday, there were 3,624 federal inmates and 1,225 Bureau of Prisons staff members who have tested positive for COVID-19.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/federal-prisons-to-prioritize-staff-to-receive-virus-vaccine/ar-BB1bi27j?li=BBnbcA1&ocid=DELLDHP

[Turbineguy]

1. Good thinking

All those trump admin people love those superspreader events.

[mpcamb]

2. Inmates. too?

Asking for a friend...

[CottonBear]

3. Inmates should get the vaccine first. NT

[denbot]

6. No, a guard can infect a wider group/s than an inmate.

Guards, then inmates and other support staff by established priorities.

[NickB79]

4. Good. This will protect the lives of the prisoners

The outbreaks we're seeing in prisons are starting because sick guards are catching the virus outside of work via community spread and bringing it into the prisons. Cutting off that route of transmission should make it harder for outbreaks to occur.

Still doesn't address the fact that overcrowding makes for a fertile breeding ground if the virus does get in, but it's a start.

[Javaman]

5. They should give by the cell block.

Prisoners can still spread it.

[Ms. Toad]

7. Inmates should get it first.

They have no other means to protect themselves.

[forgotmylogin]

9. Prisoners can be kept distanced in their cells, staff has to move between them.

It makes sense you want to vaccinate the people who contact the most prisoners first.

[Ms. Toad]

10. You don't have much real-life contact with prisons, do you.

Prisoners are trapped, and have no means to isolate themselves - and many of them are extremely overcrowded. If prisoners are ordered into unsafe conditions, they have no lawful means to refuse the order. Outbreaks in prisons have been similar in quantity and severity to those that have occurred in nursing homes.

When we choose to incarcerate someone, we have an obligation to avoid turning that brief incarceration into a death sentence.

[Bayard]

8. "Health care workers MAY be among those to receive initial doses" (emphasis mine)

What's that shit? These people are already too few, and at their breaking point. No one survives without them.