EDITORIAL: State, local health officials push aside at-risk seniors

Southern Nevada teachers get their COVID shots. Lawyers are now eligible to receive theirs. Elected officials and their staffs may line up for inoculations. Police officers and firefighters are being vaccinated.

But in Clark County, those who are ages 65 to 69 and not in one of the favored groups must wait because there aren’t enough shots to go around.

There are so many things extremely troubling about this picture.

It will be “several weeks before we can actually move into the next group,” Dr. Fermin Leguen of the Southern Nevada Health District told the Review-Journal. “It is not because we don’t want to. It’s just because there is no vaccine.”

Well, if that’s the case, Gov. Steve Sisolak and health officials need to re-evaluate their convoluted priority list. According to the state’s own statistics, age — not occupation — is the most significant factor when it comes to coronavirus risk.

Nearly 64 percent of those who have died from COVID-19 in Nevada were at least 70 years old. Those between 60 and 69 constitute another 19.4 percent of the fatalities, meaning more than 83 percent of those who have succumbed to the disease were at least 60. At the same time, those under 50 account for just 6.5 percent of deaths and those younger than 40 represent only 1.8 percent of fatalities.

Yet the governor remains wedded to a policy that elevates healthy young people in certain professions well above average senior citizens who are at much higher risk. If the goal is to minimize the loss of life, this approach makes utterly no sense. If the goal is something else, then Gov. Sisolak must let the public in on the objective.

The thinking seems to be that vaccinating lawmakers, police officers or other public servants is necessary to prevent a disruption of vital services. But the idea that a dangerous government stoppage looms hasn’t been borne out anywhere, even in COVID hotbeds. The public sector is doing just fine.

The priority debate has also become mired in leftist identity politics about “health equity.” Never mind that plenty of senior citizens are also minorities. There is no evidence that younger people of color are more at risk of death. In Nevada, Hispanics make up 30.2 percent of the population but account for 23.4 percent of COVID fatalities. African Americans represent 8.9 percent of the population and have suffered 9.3 percent of the deaths. Meanwhile, non-Hispanic whites make up 49.8 percent of population and account for 54.7 percent of deaths.

So while 30-something teachers, attorneys and politicians celebrate their vaccinations, thousands of Southern Nevada seniors are shunted aside and told to remain holed up for weeks because there isn’t enough serum. The death toll can only be higher with Gov. Sisolak’s plan to make those older than 65 wait. And he is apparently has decided he can live with that.