The Immunization Practice Advisory Committee of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention has published guidelines on who should receive coronavirus vaccines and in what order.
The guidelines, which are not binding on states and localities as they develop their vaccination programs, suggest that construction workers, classified as essential workers, receive their features in the third phase of the vaccination program, which would be earlier than most people.
Healthcare workers, along with the elderly in long-term care facilities, should be the first to be inoculated, according to the guidelines, followed by “frontline essential workers”, who total about 30 million . This class includes police and firefighters, teachers, food industry workers, prison guards, postal workers, grocery store employees, and public transportation workers.
Construction workers are considered “other essential workers,” a group totaling about 57 million. In addition to construction workers, this class also includes transportation and logistics workers, food service, finance, computing, energy, media, law, and engineering.
The CDC places all construction workers, regardless of the type of project they are working on, in the category of other essential workers. Although at the beginning of the pandemic some states and localities closed the works, most construction projects have continued since then. However, the construction industry has suffered, starting with the contraction of the economy in mid-2020.
According to Associated General Contractors of America, construction workers in November were below pre-coronavirus pandemic levels in 35 states and the District of Columbia. That was the case even though 31 states and DC added jobs in October.
The CDC guidelines do not detail an exact timeline for when people in each group will be vaccinated, although it does provide approximations.
The first two phases would take about ten weeks from mid-December. The recommended phases have some overlap, as the third phase (which may include construction workers) begins about seven or eight weeks from mid-December. The third phase would end, if all goes well, about five months from mid-December.
Construction jobs may contribute to local outbreaks of COVID-19 because there is no way to avoid any close contact at the sites, Engineering News-Record reports. Some projects, including Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas and SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, have experienced a considerable number of positive donor workers.
Vaccines against COVID-19 may be mandatory in the workplace in the future. While the issue of compulsory vaccinations for workers is new, the Committee on Equal Employment Opportunities has suggested that it would be permissible.