RALEIGH, NC (AP) – When Ann Camden learned last month that her 17-year-old daughter was exposed to the coronavirus at school and was being sent home, she packed her belongings, jumped in the car and last two hours by car on the coast to stay with their recently vaccinated parents.
The 50-year-old mother had been diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer and could not afford to become infected. Nor was he eligible under North Carolina rules to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. So she left her twins with her husband and fled for safety.
In the United States, millions of medically vulnerable people who were initially cited as one of the top priority groups in vaccination were slowly falling on the list as Centers for Disease Control and Prevention modified their guidelines to promote vaccination. elderly people, regardless of their physical condition and workers. in a wide range of labor sectors.
North Carolina is one of 24 states that currently places people under the age of 65 with “underlying medical conditions” at the bottom of the package to receive the vaccine, according to Jen Kates, senior vice president and director of global health and HIV policies of the Kaiser Foundation family. A report wrote for the foundation last month in Pennsylvania as the lone state that makes vaccines available to the most medically vulnerable during its first phase of distribution.
When North Carolina unveiled its initial orientation in October, it placed people with multiple chronic conditions at the top of the list. In response to the CDC’s December recommendations to prioritize people 75 and older, however, it left people with chronic conditions in phase 2. When the orientation changed again to expand eligibility to those of 65-year-olds or more, medically vulnerable residents learned in January that they would be moved to phase 4: to be vaccinated after the “essential front-line workers,” but before “everyone.”
“When we slipped into group 4, it was very quiet,” Camden said. “It was like,‘ We don’t want to talk about it. We will simply send you here. That was insulting in itself. “
The state’s top public health official, Dr. Mandy Cohen, said residents under the age of 65 with chronic conditions went off the list after health officials received data showing senior residents are much more likely. to die of COVID-19, though he acknowledged that “age is not a perfect proxy for risk.”
Camden decided not to wait for the state to qualify her. Just two days after arriving at her parents ’home, a friend connected her with a CVS pharmacist in Wilmington, who had a spare dose of the vaccine about to be lost. Camden was shot by Moderna in the pharmacist’s dining room on Feb. 21.
“It’s up to all of us to take it when we can get it,” Camden said. “I don’t want to feel guilty or embarrassed because I would get it whenever I could.”
Jon D’Angelo, a 32-year-old Carteret County resident who suffers from spinal muscular atrophy, did not qualify for the vaccine because he does not live in a long-term care facility. He said he skipped the line, but declined to describe where and how he got the vaccine. After a one-minute pause when asked how he justified his actions, he replied, “Justice is more important.”
Responding to the frustrations of people like Camden and D’Angelo, states are now revisiting their guidelines. As of Monday, 28 states, including North Carolina, had at least partially opened statewide vaccine eligibility to those with high-risk medical conditions, Kates said. Four additional states are making the vaccine available to medically vulnerable residents living in certain counties.
North Carolina announced it this week who would begin vaccinating people 16 years of age or older with at least one of 18 risk conditions on March 17th. And last week, the state expanded its eligibility guidelines to include people like D’Angelo who receive home care. D’Angelo is now retroactively eligible for Phase 1, which was launched in December.
“I’m glad they did, but the fact that it took me three months to fix it is outrageous,” D’Angelo said.
On Monday, South Carolina extended eligibility to people with disabilities and at risk, and Michigan did so for medically vulnerable residents 50 years of age or older. California will open vaccines to people with disabilities and at risk on March 15th.
In Georgia, the governor announced this week that those 16 and older who suffer from serious health problems will be eligible starting March 15th. one day before the announcement. Prior to that, he had explored the possibility of going to a neighboring state. During the months it took her to be eligible in Georgia, she said she and other people like her felt “on one side.”
Charlotte resident Maura Wozniak, 42, has cystic fibrosis and will wait until she gets vaccinated. Wozniak was furious with North Carolina’s decision to put her back in line, as it meant a longer delay for her children to return to the classroom. But after learning on social media that he would soon be eligible, he cried with relief.
“They were able to hear the requests of high-risk people in the state,” Wozniak said. “The fact that they gave us an appointment was promising. Will everything be perfect? No, but at least now there is a certain window “.
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Associated Press writer Anila Yoganathan in Atlanta contributed to this report.
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