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Iesha White is so fed up with America’s response to covid-19 that she has considered moving to Europe.
“I am outraged. The lack of consideration for others, for me, is too much,” said White, 30, who lives in Los Angeles. She has multiple sclerosis and takes a drug that suppresses her immune system. “As a disabled black person, I feel like no one cares regarding my safety.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have a strict definition of who is considered moderately or severely immunocompromised, such as cancer patients undergoing active treatment and organ transplant recipients. In addition, there are millions of people living with chronic illnesses or disabilities which also make them especially susceptible to disease. Although vulnerability differs according to each person and their health status – and may depend on the circumstances – contracting covid is a risk they cannot take.
As a result, these high-risk Americans — and their loved ones who fear spreading the virus to them — say they are being ignored while the rest of society abandons protective measures once morest the pandemic, such as wearing masks and physical distancing.
Their fears increased this month when several Democratic Governors, including leaders in California and New York — places that were at the forefront of implementing mask mandates from the beginning — signaled an end to such safety requirements. For many, this measure meant a return to “normal” life. But it raised the level of anxiety for people considered immunocompromised, or for whom Covid poses a high risk due to other conditions.
“I know my normal life is never going to be normal,” said Chris Neblett, 44, of Indiana, Pennsylvania, who lives with a transplanted kidney and takes immunosuppressive drugs to keep his body from rejecting the organ. “I will continue to wear a mask in public. I’ll probably still go to the supermarket late at night or early in the morning to avoid other people.”
He is especially concerned that his wife and young daughter have tested positive for covid.
Although he is fully vaccinated, he is not sure if he is protected from the worst effects of the virus. Neblett participates in a study from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in which the immune response of transplant recipients to the vaccine is tracked, so you know that their body only produced a low amount of antibodies following the third dose and is awaiting the results of the fourth. For now, he has isolated himself from his wife and his two children for 10 days, his second time in the garage.
“I told my wife when covid first appeared: ‘I have to survive until the vaccine arrives,'” he said. But learning that the vaccine hasn’t triggered an adequate response from his immune system so far is disheartening. “Your world changes completely. You start to wonder, ‘Am I going to be a statistic? Am I going to be a number to people who don’t seem to care?
Scientists estimate that nearly 3% of Americans they meet the strict definition of having a weakened immune system, but the researchers acknowledge that many more chronically ill and disabled people might be severely affected if they contract covid.
In the summer of 2021, scientific evidence indicated that immunosuppressed people would likely benefit from a third vaccine, but federal agencies were slow to update their guidance. Even then, only certain groups of immunosuppressed were eligible, leaving others out.
In October, the CDC quietly revised its vaccine guidelines once more to allow people with weakened immune systems to receive a fourth dose of Covid. But a recent KHN article revealed that, in January, pharmacists unaware of this change were still turning away eligible people.
People with weakened immune systems, or with other high-risk conditions, argue that now is the time to strengthen policies that protect vulnerable Americans like them, now that omicron is going down.
“The pandemic is not over,” he said. Matthew Cortlandspecialist in disability and medical care for Data for Progress, who suffers from a chronic disease and is immunosuppressed. “There is no reason to believe that another variant will not emerge. Now is the time, as this wave of omicron begins to recede, to seek policies and interventions that protect the chronically ill, disabled and immunocompromised so that we are not left behind.”
Several people interviewed by KHN, who are part of this community, said the opposite is happening instead, pointing to a comment from January by CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky suggesting as a “news encouraging” the fact that most of the people who died of covid were already sick.
“The vast majority of deaths, more than 75%, occurred in people who had at least four comorbidities [cuando una persona padece varios trastornos]so these are really people who were already sick,” Walensky said, speaking of a study during a television interview showing the level of protection vaccinated people had once morest severe covid disease. “And yes, really encouraging news in the context of omicron.”
Although CDC later reported that Walensky’s remarks had been taken out of context, Kendall Ciesemier, a 29-year-old multimedia producer who lives in Brooklyn, New York, said the comments had bothered her.
Walensky’s remarks “caused a great stir in the disabled and chronically ill community,” said Ciesemier, who has undergone two liver transplants. “She grew out of a sense that these communities have not been prioritized during the pandemic and make us feel as if our lives are acceptable losses.”
When asked by a KHN reporter, in the White House press conference on February 9What would he say to people who feel they are being left behind, Walensky did not offer a clear answer.
“Of course, we have to make recommendations that are relevant to both New York City and rural Montana,” he said, adding that they have to be “relevant to the public, but also to the immunocompromised and disabled public. And so all of those considerations are taken into account when we work on our guidelines.”
Although CDC recommend at this time that vaccinated people continue to wear masks indoors, if they are in a place with high or significant transmission of covid — which includes most of the United States—, federal officials have indicated that this recommendation might be updated soon.
“We want people to be able to stop wearing the masks, when the indicators improve, and then have the ability to resort to them once more in case things get worse,” Walensky said during a conference. covid briefing held February 16 at the White House, discussing whether the CDC’s prevention policies would change soon.
But ditching the masks isn’t something Dennis Boen, a 67-year-old retiree who has had three kidney transplants, is considering. Since his community in Wooster, Ohio, ended the mandatory use of face masks, and few residents wear them, he does not feel comfortable attending many of the social events that he enjoyed.
“I stopped going to my Rotary Club that I’ve been a part of for decades,” Boen said. “I went to an outdoor picnic once in the summer and it was as if people didn’t believe [en covid] or they didn’t mind not wearing masks and I felt like they didn’t give me space.”
Charis Hill, a 35-year-old activist living in Sacramento, California, has put off two operations, a hysterectomy and an umbilical hernia repair for more than a year because she didn’t feel safe. The delay has meant Hill has to take additional medication and eat only certain foods. The surgeries are scheduled for March 21, but with California’s mask mandate running out, Hill is thinking of delaying them once more.
“I feel disposable. As if my life is worthless,” said Hill, who lives with axial spondyloarthritis, a chronic inflammatory disease, and takes immunosuppressive drugs. “I’m sick of being constantly told that I should stay home and let the rest of the world move on.”
KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism regarding health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.
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