March 5, 2021
Dropping the wait
U.S. News & World Report, March 5, 2021
“We’re seeing these sort of mob scenes,” whether it’s the “masking or non-masking groups” or people fighting about who gets priority for a vaccine, says Bernadette Boden-Albala, director and founding dean of the University of California Irvine’s Program in Public Health. “People will say, ‘Step to the top of the line if you have cancer,’ and, ‘Do not get in line if you have obesity.’ People feel it’s not your fault if you have cancer, but it is your fault if you are obese. I thought we had stopped this myth, which is incredibly irresponsible,” adds Boden-Albala, who is a member of a panel of experts informing on California’s public health response to the pandemic.