The 65 and older age group in Connecticut is 84% white, compared to 67% statewide. For some, that's raised the question of whether the state's plans to extend the COVID-19 vaccine to people 65 to 74 next adequately considers the other populations hit hardest by the virus: Black and Latino residents.
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Unions for Connecticut’s grocery workers said they’re disappointed to be left out of Governor Ned Lamont’s changes to the state’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout plan.
Lamont said the move to a mostly age-based system will make the rollout less complicated.
Ron Petronella is with the United Food and Commercial Workers’ local 371 in Westport. The union represents about 5,000 grocery store workers in Connecticut.
“Our members continue to work and put themselves at risk. And it’s upsetting to us that the stores are busier now than ever, and the infection can spread more easily there, I think, than in the classroom,” Petronella said.
Merrill Gay helped his elderly mother, sequestered alone at home, make an appointment last week to get a coronavirus vaccination.
Meanwhile, the thousands of child care workers who are members of the coalition he leads, the Early Childhood Alliance, have been told they will have to wait more than a month for their turn to make an appointment.
“A person living by themselves isn’t really high risk,” said Gay. “It’s really easy to slip into the, ‘Oh yeah, old folks are more likely to die from this,’ as opposed to looking at the data and [asking], ‘Well, demographically, are they really? ”