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Here's another problem-riddled NYT piece on COVID-19 vaccine
Some good discussion of wealthy countries hoarding vaccine
However, Peter Singer goes unchallenged on ableist & ageist comments that older people don't deserve priority due to "quality of life" https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/24/magazine/who-should-get-the-covid-vaccine-next.html
Some good discussion of wealthy countries hoarding vaccine
However, Peter Singer goes unchallenged on ableist & ageist comments that older people don't deserve priority due to "quality of life" https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/24/magazine/who-should-get-the-covid-vaccine-next.html
Prof Peter Singer is an Australian. In this country, and others, aged care homes have seen the highest COVID-19 deaths. The problem is not merely that older people are more at risk, but specifically that there are systemic problems with the management of these facilities...
... When Prof Singer argues that healthcare workers should be prioritised, but older people not, it shows lack of understanding of COVID-19
Heathcare workers get infected, bringing disease into aged care homes & their households. Older people die. Why? Because work conditions...
Heathcare workers get infected, bringing disease into aged care homes & their households. Older people die. Why? Because work conditions...
Healthcare workers are precariously employed. They need to pick up shifts at multiple institutions. They live in small homes that make self-isolation impossible. In this setting, infection is guaranteed
The problem is institutional: aged and disability care sectors need reform
The problem is institutional: aged and disability care sectors need reform
To Prof Singer's point about quality of life - when he imagines prioritising healthcare workers, he may be imagining white doctors. He's wrong. The majority are racial minorities, many who live in poor, multigenerational households.
Will vaccine improve their "quality of life"?
Will vaccine improve their "quality of life"?
The idea that older people should be at the bottom of the vaccination list because their "quality of life" is poor, rests on ableism & ageism. A white middle class man may see old age as worthless, but that is a value biased by his race, class, culture & training
The inevitability of inequality, as perpetuated by white middle classes, maintains the status quo
Western philosophy & other sciences make this appear "rational" and "normal," when it is an active choice for institutions to deliver poor healthcare to some groups over others
Western philosophy & other sciences make this appear "rational" and "normal," when it is an active choice for institutions to deliver poor healthcare to some groups over others
