(MyNorthWest) The Washington State Department of Health lets providers deny vaccines to white people in a race-exclusionary system they claim creates equity and removes barriers. It does neither.
The African American Reach and Teach Health Ministry (AARTH) is a vaccine provider in Washington state. Eligible recipients can sign up for vaccines using their online scheduler. But if you’re white, you’re not able to access any open vaccine appointments.
By default, white people are put on a standby list — one of two lists segregated by race — for vaccine access. They will only provide their online appointments to people of color.
Given repeated opportunities over the course of several days, the state DOH would not directly answer whether or not this practice violates the law. Instead, the DOH repeatedly deflected, arguing that they’re taking necessary steps to provide equitable access to the vaccine. But it’s only equitable access if you have the right skin color.
Vaccines kept from white people
If you try to sign up for a May 1 pop-up at Fred Hutch in Seattle, via the AARTH website, you must identify as either a person of color or as white.
“Part of the reason we ask that is because of the funding that we receive,” AARTH consultant Twanda Hill told the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH. “They want to know. … We have funding because we are able to reach people of color. Federal funding, state funding, county funding. They want to know who are we serving.”
If you’re a person of color, you can move forward and schedule a vaccine appointment if there is an opening. But if you’re white, you are automatically placed on a standby list. This bars you from continuing the process. AARTH says they will contact the white person if there is an opening.
But this isn’t the only list.
The first list, according to Hill, is a waitlist for people of color, should a vaccine appointment open up. If the waitlist is emptied and vaccine availabilities eventually open up, only then will a white person on the standby list be contacted.
This policy effectively bars white people from accessing taxpayer funded vaccines set up through the state. Hill argues their system isn’t truly exclusionary. A small percentage of white people on the standby list make it through. She also notes that people who lie about their race won’t be turned away.
