Sam Wasson/Getty Images toggle caption Sam Wasson/Getty Images An American flag with an image of a Native American on it in To'Hajiilee Indian Reservation in New Mexico. In California, a vaccine allocation committee is considering taking historical injustice into account in advance of a statewide rollout. Sam Wasson/Getty Images When Virginia Hedrick first heard about the coronavirus circulating on cruise ships off the coast of California back in March, it made her think back to some of the first ships of European settlers that arrived on American shores centuries ago, also teeming with disease. Various outbreaks and epidemics spread across the continent in the following centuries, particularly measles and smallpox, and Indigenous people suffered hugely disproportionate rates of illness and death.