CDC advisory committee approves racial considerations over lives saved Two Ivy League medical professors are facing backlash for recommending that COVID-19 vaccine distribution should be prioritized based on skin color rather than risk level. The University of Pennsylvania’s Harald Schmidt and Harvard University’s Marc Lipsitch have since somewhat walked back their comments to The New York Times, though Lipsitch claimed his views were misinterpreted. Neither the professors nor their academic institutions responded to College Fix requests for comment on the medical scholars’ stated views that predominantly white groups should not get vaccine priority. Schmidt and Lipsitch were discussing the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’ pending recommendations to the CDC on which group should get vaccines first, “essential workers” or elderly people.