‘Worse Than What We Thought’: New Data Reveals Deeper Problems with the Bureau of Prisons’ Covid Response

May 23, 2023

(STAT News) – The incarcerated people at Federal Medical Center Devens should have been some of the first to receive the Covid vaccines, back when they first came out in December 2020. At the time, the country was prioritizing high-risk people in high-risk settings, like older Americans in nursing homes. So Devens seemed a better candidate than most prisons for an early vaccine rollout: It’s one of just seven facilities in the country equipped to handle federal prisoners with complex medical conditions like end-stage renal disease — people who were also especially vulnerable to dying from the coronavirus. But Devens wasn’t the first, or even the second, federal prison to start vaccinating its residents. It was tied for last. (Read More)