'Squad' Member Claims Inmates Should Be Prioritized for COVID Vaccine
Lawbreakers should move to the head of the line for the COVID-19 vaccine, according to one member of the House coterie of progressives who call themselves the “squad.”
Democratic Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts said inmates deserve to be vaccinated due to the spread of COVID behind bars.
“I’m going to continue to fight for our most vulnerable — communities who have been disproportionately impacted by the virus, for our health care workers, for our essential workers, for incarcerated men and women to be prioritized in the distribution of the vaccine,” she said in a CNN interview Sunday, according to Fox News.
Pressley had earlier tweeted her advocacy for inmates who remain behind bars even after the initial spread of the virus resulted in prisoners being released.
COVID-19 is rampant in our prisons, jails, and detention centers.
Incarcerated individuals must be prioritized once a vaccine is available.https://t.co/T1wqYTcAgc
— Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (@RepPressley) December 11, 2020
“Covid-19 is rampant in our prisons, jails and detention centers. Incarcerated individuals must be prioritized once a vaccine is available,” she tweeted, linking to a commentary piece on NBC that called for vaccinating inmates.
That commentary argued, in part, that “Vaccines need to reach people in ways that uplift the common dignity and humanity of those trapped within the prison and jail systems.”
Pressley has said the virus has “raged out of control,” blaming President Donald Trump and his Republican allies.
It “has everything to do with the willful criminality of Donald Trump and I would add even his GOP-led senate. They have dragged their feet on making the investments necessary to meet the scale and scope of this hurt and to invest in contact tracing and things like that,” she told CNN.
Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, has also said that she believes inmates and homeless individuals should have top priority for the vaccine, according to The Washington Free Beacon.
But Democratic Colorado Gov. Jared Polis is breaking with the progressive wing of his party on the issue.
“There’s no way that prisoners are going to get it before members of a vulnerable population,” Polis said, according to the Free Beacon. “There’s no way it’s going to go to prisoners before it goes to people who haven’t committed any crime. That’s obvious.”
However, Massachusetts will make inmates a priority group, according to The New York Times.
Dr. Simone Wildes, an infectious disease specialist who is on the COVID-19 vaccine advisory group, indicated it was part of the state’s effort to focus the vaccine on minority groups, The Times reported.
“We used equity as a core principle in our recommendations,” Wildes told the newspaper. “We have had a lot of cases of COVID in the prisons, and we wanted to make sure those at highest risk were getting the vaccine first.”
“Those at greatest need — we have to take care of them,” Wildes said. “You can’t socially distance in prison.”
Carol Rose, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, said freeing inmates is also essential.
“Prisons and jails are just petri dishes for the coronavirus,” she said. “We need to reduce incarceration levels and release people who aren’t a danger to society, so more people are alive to receive the vaccine when it becomes available.”
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