Texas will ignore guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about who should receive the coronavirus vaccine first, choosing to provide doses to the elderly before essential workers.
Texas will allow residents 65 and older to receive the vaccine before front-line workers such as police, food and farm workers, school staff, including teachers, and public transportation employees, among others.
“Focusing on people over the age of 65 or who have comorbidities will protect the most vulnerable populations,” said Imelda Garcia, who chairs the group of experts for vaccine allocation and is associate curator of the laboratory division. of the Texas State Department of Health Services. and Infectious Disease Services, he told CNBC. “This approach ensures that jeans with the most severe risk of COVID-19 can be protected between races and ethnicities and regardless of where they work.”
Dr. Jen Kates, senior vice president and director of global health and HIV policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, said the change is not irrational, although it is a substantial deviation and she expects other states to make similar adjustments.
“It’s not really about right or wrong, it’s about state values,” he said.
“Clearly Texas has fallen on the side of ‘we’ll focus on those most at risk for disease and death,'” Kates continued. depending on where you live “.
He added: “Farm workers have little protection and have suffered disproportionately, but in this scheme that Texas uses [they] will not be at the head of the line. Send a signal “.
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