Equitable and tailored access to covid-19 vaccine for people in prison

For many reasons—including limited hygiene resources, overcrowding and inability to keep social distancing, poor ventilation, and lack of access to quality healthcare services—the risk of outbreaks of airborne infections in prisons is exceptionally high.1 Numerous outbreaks of different types of influenza have occurred in prisons in the past years, and SARS-CoV-2 has also found its way into prisons around the world during the recent pandemic.1 International guidelines have recommended vaccination as an essential intervention to control infection transmission in prisons, and prisons may even be a gateway to offer appropriate and high quality healthcare services to individuals who are hard to reach while in the community.2 Although information on the availability, accessibility, and coverage of vaccination programmes in prisons is scarce, the existing data show that people in prison are largely under-immunised against infectious diseases.3 This is a major public health concern. (bmj opinion, March 17, 2021)

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/03/17/equitable-and-tailored-access-to-covid-19-vaccine-for-people-in-prison/