Op-Ed: Success of a COVID-19 Vaccine Requires Proper Planning for Equitable Distribution

I am cautiously optimistic at the current pace of COVID-19 vaccine development and encouraged that a number of drug companies are seeing promising results. Current projections show that we may begin vaccinating the public by the end of this year or early 2021, but it will take hundreds of millions of vaccine doses to effectively curb this virus.

Not all of those vaccine doses are going to be available at once, so difficult decisions will have to be made as to how to prioritize their distribution. That is why the Administration must develop a national COVID-19 vaccine distribution plan now.

This distribution plan must take a public health approach with the goals of rapidly ending the pandemic and saving the most lives. To reach these goals, the plan must be fair and effective and prioritize those at highest risk of getting infected and of dying from this disease.

It is no secret that mistakes were made by the Administration – to put it lightly – in the production and distribution of vital supplies responding to this public health crisis. Six months into this pandemic, accessing COVID-19 testing and getting timely results are still huge problems across the country. In many areas, health care providers who are risking their lives to take care of COVID-19 patients still do not have enough personal protective equipment and are unable to receive a COVID-19 test while low-risk, non-essential workers, like professional athletes, are able to receive routine rapid testing. Low-risk residents in affluent communities can often get tests after returning from vacation while higher-risk farmworkers who are going to work every day to maintain our food supply chain cannot.

We cannot repeat these grave mistakes in our distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine. The Administration has a chance to get this right by developing a distribution plan that prioritizes health equity now.

As study after study has shown, this disease hits certain populations harder than others. Frontline health care providers, seniors (particularly those in nursing homes), individuals with underlying illnesses at any age, essential workers who cannot work from home, and communities of color are at highest risk of becoming infected, getting severely sick, and dying from COVID-19.

That is why the Administration must aggressively and immediately pursue coordinated, strategic vaccine distribution efforts that prioritize these individuals and are based on science and public health expertise.

We will not get this pandemic under control in our country if it's not under control for every community, especially those at highest risk for getting and spreading COVID-19.

Health equity must be a priority – not an afterthought – in the national allocation and distribution plan.

In their plan, the Administration must address: what principles will guide the prioritization of vaccine distribution; what factors are being taken into account in the formulation of the vaccine distribution plan; how the amount, timeline, and location of distribution reflect these priorities; and how and when the amount, timeline, and location of vaccine distribution will be made transparent to the public.

We cannot wait until the vaccine is ready to start thinking about vaccine distribution objectives.

The time is now to create a nationwide vaccination plan that will save the most lives and end the pandemic as quickly as possible by prioritizing vulnerable populations at highest risk of getting infected and dying from COVID-19, rather than leaving it up to the highest bidder or prioritizing wealthier, low-risk populations.

Without this plan, the Administration will exacerbate health disparities, prolong the pandemic, and worsen our economy.

With the right plan, we will reduce health disparities, help our economy, and save lives.

Rep. Raul Ruiz, MD, MPH, MPP, is an ER Doctor trained in humanitarian and disaster aid and represents California's 36th District in the United States Congress.