Professor gets heat after saying ‘whiter’ elderly should wait for vaccine

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An ethics professor at the University of Pennsylvania sparked a heated debate by suggesting essential workers should get priority for the coronavirus vaccine over vulnerable senior citizens, because the workers are more likely to be minorities.

“Older populations are whiter, ” Harald Schmidt told the New York Times. “Society is structured in a way that enables them to live longer. Instead of giving additional health benefits to those who already had more of them, we can start to level the playing field a bit.”

The Centers for Disease Control should use its own “social vulnerability index” to decide how to protect older people who are more at risk, Schmidt said. 

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