Omicron: The Variant that Vaccine Apartheid Built

Vaccine apartheid as a concept calls attention to the effects of inequitable vaccine distribution policies on historically subordinated peoples. The response to Omicron reflects the racialization of diseases and embodies the tendency to attach racial meaning to ailments based on the racial groups that tend to be socially associated with a given illness. . If the current course is not corrected, vaccine apartheid will only deepen, and the resulting mal-distribution will render historically subordinated groups even more disposable. If the ongoing pandemic and the emergence of Omicron and other variants is going to teach us anything, the lesson must be that until we are all safe, none of us are safe.