Old White People Should Get Vaccine Last, Suggests PA Univ. Ethics Professor

Ethics professor Harald Schmidt at the University of Pennsylvania suggested older white people should get the vaccine last.

“Older populations are whiter,” he told the New York Times. Instead of giving them even more health benefits, “we can start to level the playing field a bit.” He said that senior citizens already receive more health benefits than other groups.

Schmidt suggested that essential workers should get vaccine priority over vulnerable senior citizens. He believes those workers are more likely to be minorities.

About 80 percent of those who died from COVID-19 were over the age of 65. People over the age of 80 are 630 times more likely to die from the virus than those age 18 to 29, according to CDC data.

UNETHICAL PROFESSOR

The Ethics professor went on to say that the CDC should use a “social vulnerability index” to decide how to protect older people who are higher risk of death from COVID. The index uses Census data such as poverty, unemployment, disability, housing status, and education to determine which communities “are most likely to feel the impact of a public health emergency.”

Schmidt’s remarks sparked outrage. His social media platforms were awash with angry responses.

One woman commented, “But you had to elaborate and identify the elderly population as being ‘whiter’ and point to that as assumption they had more privileged lives and it’s time to level the playing field. Inexcusable!”

“I don’t understand how you can be considered an ethics professor,” another wrote, calling Schmidt’s comments “Appalling.”

Schmidt is an Ethics professor at the University of Pennsylvania. He sounds more like a Eugenics professor. Eugenics is the study of how to improve the genetic quality of people. It excludes people or groups of people who are judged to be inferior and promoting those who are judged to be superior. Hitler used Eugenics to justify the Holocaust. Margaret Sanger used Eugenics to start Planned Parenthood.

SCHMIDT IS NOT ALONE

But he’s not alone in his views. Several medical professionals suggested that decisions about distributing the limited doses of the vaccine should be based on considerations of social justice, according to a New York Times article published on Friday.

Fortunately, Schmidt and those health professionals aren’t the ones deciding who should get the vaccine, and when. CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield has said he believes priority should be given to people 70 and older who live with their children or grandchildren, as reported by the Daily Mail.

But if people like Schmidt had their way, vulnerable senior citizens, who have already suffered disproportionately higher losses from the Coronavirus, would be left to die.


Image from: nypost.com

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