NEW YORK (AP) – The COVID-19 vaccination campaign in the United States has begun and the few doses available are intended primarily for the arms of health workers and residents of residences.
But what about January, February, and March, when more shots are expected to be available? Who should get these doses?
A federal group of vaccination experts addresses this issue at an emergency meeting this weekend. Regardless of what the committee decides, there will be differences from state to state.
Panelists opt to put “essential workers” first because bus drivers, grocery store employees and similar employees can’t work from home. They are the people who become infected most often and where concerns about racial inequalities at risk are most evident.
But other experts say people 65 and older should be the following, along with people with certain medical conditions. They say they are the people who die at the highest rates.
The group plans to vote on the proposal on Sunday, a day after discussing a vaccine made by Moderna.
“I think we know this will not be perfect. We don’t have a vaccine for everyone right away, so we’re going to have to make tough decisions, ”said Claire Hannan, executive director of an organization that represents managers of state vaccination programs.
If there are indeed essential workers, states already have different ideas about who should be closer to the front line.
In Nevada, for example, teachers and child care staff will be ahead of public transportation workers, according to the state’s current vaccination plan. Then come the agriculture and food workers, and then the retail and utility employees.
In South Dakota, teachers could access it before those working in food and transportation. In Arkansas, the list of essential workers it includes teachers, prison guards, police, packaging plant workers and mayors.
The advice of the expert group (the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices) is almost always endorsed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This is what happened earlier this month, when the group said that the highest priority should be given to health workers and long-term care home residents for the initial vaccination of $ 20 million. ‘this month.
But it is not clear that things will follow the same path in the next phase. CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield has said he believes priority should be given to people aged 70 or over living with children or grandchildren.
The chairman of the advisory panel, Dr. Jose Romero, told The Associated Press that he was aware of Redfield’s previous comments, but had not spoken about them directly.
Redfield declined to say whether he would prioritize seniors over essential workers, even if the group recommends otherwise. “I look forward to hearing from the advisory group’s discussion and receiving their recommendation for consideration,” he said in a statement emailed to the AP.
States should not follow guidelines.
After the CDC panel said health workers and residents of residences should receive the first doses, most states followed those recommendations. But there have been some exceptions. He said Utah long-term care residents should be behind health workers, rather than sharing the front with them. Massachusetts included first-degree inmates and homeless people, while Nevada, New Hampshire and Wyoming did the same with police officers.
State-to-state variations are likely to increase in the next priority groups, said Jennifer Kates of the Kaiser Family Foundation, which has been analyzing state vaccination plans.
“I think we’ll see states fall in different ways,” with some prioritizing seniors over essential workers, Kates said.
Things could get tangled up. For example, some experts said it is possible that if a state gives priority to certain essential workers and a neighboring state decides to give priority to the elderly, people may try to cross state lines in hopes of getting vaccinated.
“This is one of the problems of not having a fully national immunization plan,” said Romero, who is also the head of the Arkansas state health department.
The proposal to the advisory committee is based on a broad definition of essential workers established in August by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. It counts hundreds of different types of jobs as critical infrastructure workforce, including first aid, teachers, communications technicians, weather forecasters, wastewater treatment plant employees and people working in shelters animals.
According to estimates submitted to the advisory committee, up to 87 million people can be counted as essential employees who do not work in health care.
The government hopes to be able to start vaccinating only 80 million new people during the first three months of 2021.
It is possible that the committee may consider granting the same condition to essential workers and the elderly, similar to the way in which it said that both health workers and residents of nursing homes should be together at the head of the line. But this would create a much, much larger priority group than the number that can be vaccinated before spring.
The nation has more than 53 million seniors. The CDC also has more than 100 million Americans with underlying medical conditions that put them at greater risk for serious COVID-related illnesses, although there is an overlap between the two groups.
Meanwhile, various trade associations and groups of workers have sent emails and other communications to the committee, arguing that priority should be given.
Julie Russell, representing the Coronado Unified School District in California, urged prioritizing teachers and other school workers. “We ask you to recognize the importance of the safety of our staff and how many young lives each of us touches,” he said at a meeting last weekend from the same CDC group.
Dr. Charles Lee, of the American College of Correctional Physicians, advocated for those who work in prisons and prisons, in addition to inmates. “There are a lot of essential workers in correctional facilities. Please don’t leave them out, ”he said at the same meeting.
Romero said the advisory committee is likely to discuss ways to help states reduce which key workers should go first. For example, people who consider themselves essential, but who can work from home, may be higher on the list than people who cannot stay within ten feet of others while working.
What about Atlanta-based CDC staff? In a note to employees obtained by the PA, Redfield said the agency will not obtain a direct vaccine assignment. However, the Georgia plan allows some public health and lab workers to be in the state’s top priority group. Some CDC officials also work in hospitals and clinics, and can be prioritized with staff at these locations.
Of course, when more vaccine comes out, “the issue of priority becomes less important,” said Dr. Eric Toner, a Johns Hopkins University scientist who has written about possible vaccination prioritization frameworks.
“The bottom line is that we just need to vaccinate as many people as quickly as we can,” he said.
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AP writers Candice Choi and Jason Dearen in New York City and Jonathan Poet in Philadelphia contributed to this report.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department is supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.