Earlier this month, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) included smoking among conditions that put people at high risk for contracting a “serious disease associated with COVID-19,” which makes it possible for people belonging to this category to be vaccinated in the early stages of inoculation. As a result, essential workers, especially teachers, are frustrated.
According to a report posted on CNN, teachers in the state of New Jersey have expressed disappointment that smokers have been given priority over essential workers like them.
“We have said from the beginning that educators should receive priority access to the vaccine. It is an important step towards a safer return to face-to-face learning. We have been in constant communication with state officials about educators’ access to the vaccine. We have reiterated the need to do everything necessary to accelerate this access, even in light of the revised federal guidelines of the Trump administration and a slow federal deployment of the actual vaccine, “he said. say New Jersey Educators Association communications director Steve Baker, according to CNN. .
New Jersey and Mississippi have rolled out vaccines for smokers under the age of 65. According to an analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation, several U.S. states have included smokers in the next phase.
New Jersey Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy had turned 16-year-olds and older people with medical conditions Thursday. Murphy and New Jersey Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli said the state’s vaccination schedule is to vaccinate as many people as soon as possible, starting with people who are most susceptible to serious illness from the virus.
“We can’t be overly bureaucratic about this … Don’t break people down into Job A versus Job B,” the governor said.
The CDC has advised smokers to be vaccinated in phase 1c of the unit. However, the decision to open eligibility for the various components has been left in the hands of the states.
New Jersey, like other states, uses CDC guidelines to determine who is in which category. For example, the cohort of more than 65 people and people with medical conditions are grouped together. What varies by state is when each group receives the vaccine. New Jersey started with health workers, nursing home staff and residents, and then moved on to first aid, such as police and firefighters.
Then came the elderly and those with medical illnesses, but other states have gone in different directions. For example, teachers are eligible in many states as part of what the CDC calls population 1b, including neighbors in New York and Pennsylvania, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, but not yet in New Jersey.
State officials, however, have maintained that the decision was made taking into account “a medical fact and not for political misconduct.” “We have to save lives. And we have to protect our hospitals, by the way, from a wave of patients,” Murphy said. A spokesman for the state health department echoed the governor’s thinking to understand that smoking is a health risk.
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves had also announced that vaccines would now be available for people suffering from existing medical conditions, as well as for smokers. However, state teachers, police and firefighters were promised inoculation in the next round, he said.
New Jersey is home to about 2 million smokers who make up the largest population that meets the requirements for the vaccine, state Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli told a news conference. Whether smoking is a public health issue or a personal choice is a debate that has been sparked by the New Jersey decision. The state health department has noted that nicotine from tobacco products is addictive and that people who smoke should stop smoking.
While it has been striking to add smokers to the list of people eligible for vaccination, there is a more important issue at stake: the lack of vaccine supply.
For example, New Jersey currently receives about 100,000 doses a week. But it would need about 470,000 a week to meet projected demand, Persichilli said.
That would be enough to vaccinate 70% of the adult population, or 4.7 million people, in about six months, which is the goal of the state.
Governor Phil Murphy put it this way: supply does not meet demand.
(With Reuters tickets)