This would place these people in the “phase 1b” vaccine allocation across the country.
That committee vote also included prioritizing adults aged 65 to 75, people aged 16 to 64 with high-risk medical conditions and “other essential workers” in the “phase 1c” assignment.
“They really serve to address the current lack of vaccine supply and target those most at risk for disease,” said Dr. Jose Romero, chairman of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and secretary of the recommendations. Arkansas Department of Health. .
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices met on Sunday to discuss phases 1b and 1c of vaccine distribution.
There are two Covid-19 vaccines, Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna, currently authorized for emergency use in the United States.
Who is an essential worker?
An advisory committee working group defined front-line essential workers as “workers who are in sectors essential to the functioning of society and who have a substantially higher risk of exposure” to the coronavirus caused by Covid- 19.
Phase 1b front-line essential workers include first aid workers, people in the education sector, those working in food and agriculture, those in the manufacturing industry, brokers, postal service workers. of the United States, public transportation workers, and grocery store workers.
There are an estimated 30 million front-line essential workers in the United States.
The category of other essential workers in phase 1c includes transport and logistics people, food service, construction and housing, finance, IT and communications, the energy sector, the media, the legal sector, public safety and the water and wastewater industries.
There are an estimated 57 million other essential workers in the United States.
The “hardest” vote
“This is definitely the toughest vote I’ve made in my six and a half years on the committee,” Romero said.
“I am confident that we have come to this by thoroughly examining the data and that what we provide, as stated before, will be the final decision at the local level. But what we are providing to governors and health officials with is a framework , which relies on testing, “Romero said.
He voted “yes” on the proposed recommendations for phase 1b and 1c.
Committee member Dr. Peter Szilagyi, who also voted “yes,” accepted that the decision was difficult.
“I sincerely wish everyone could get the vaccine today and I know high-risk people are not included in phase 1b,” said Szilagyi, who is part of the pediatric department at the University of California at Los Angeles. “But for several months, as the supply of vaccines increases, all Americans will have access to these safe and effective vaccines.”
The “no” vote went to Dr. Henry Bernstein, who is a professor of pediatrics at Huckstra’s Zucker School of Medicine. Bernstein explained that he voted no because he considered the science on the morbidity and mortality of Covid-19 to be similar between the 65-74 age group and the 75 and older group.
“So including the 65- to 74-year-old group in phase 1b made more sense to me,” Bernstein said.
The need for funding
In their vote, a majority of committee members also called on the government to fully fund vaccination programs of state and local health departments.
“The fact that state and local health departments have not been funded for the vaccination program, especially in the context of the billions of dollars that funded the successful vaccine development program, is really horrible,” he said. Dr. Beth Bell, who voted “yes” on the proposal.
“I’m just one person, but I just want to say, again, that I hope the government addresses this discrepancy, without which I think it will be very difficult for us to succeed,” said Bell, a clinical professor in the University’s global health department. of Washington.
The advisory committee’s recommendations for phases 1b and 1c are presented to the CDC for final acceptance.