Which Americans will get the Covid vaccine first? – Manila Bulletin

The Pfizer and Moderna Covid vaccines could be approved in a matter of weeks, but who in America will get them first?

Although nothing has been decided yet, US experts may differ from other countries in prioritizing “critical workers” who keep society going, potentially even before those most at risk.

To be clear, there will not be a single set of rules for the entire nation.

At the risk of confusion, as happened during the 2009 H1N1 vaccination campaign, the federal government only makes recommendations to the states, who decide for themselves how to distribute the doses and who has priority.

Panels of top experts have already issued their opinions, which diverge on certain key points and reveal the tension at the center of the debate: vaccines must protect the most vulnerable and help facilitate a return to normalcy.

It’s about reviving the economy as quickly as possible that the United States can differentiate itself.

France’s highest health authority recommended starting with the residents and employees of retirement homes who work there, followed by the elderly and health workers, then those over 50, the people whose jobs put them at risk, people at high medical risk, the poor and finally the rest of the population.

That is the approach recommended by the World Health Organization and adopted by several wealthy countries, Saad Omer, director of the Yale Institute for Global Health, told AFP.

In the US, the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) compiled a more than 200-page report suggesting that front-line healthcare workers receive the vaccine first and then first responders, such as paramedics, police and firefighters.

Then would come the people with two or more underlying conditions (like cancer, obesity and diabetes), whatever their age, then the two million people in nursing homes.

– Keep the country running –

For the next phase, NASEM emphasizes less age and more profession, prioritizing “critical” workers who keep the country running.

These include teachers, workers from slaughterhouses to supermarkets who feed Americans, and those who drive buses and trains, sell them their medicine, maintain order, or deliver mail and packages.

The people in these jobs are often Hispanic or minority black, and they have been disproportionately hit by the pandemic.

After these tens of millions of workers, next on the list could be people with an underlying condition, the homeless, prisoners, and people 65 and older with no comorbidities.

Younger adults and students, who have a lower risk of contracting a serious illness but who have been the main transmitters of the virus, would be next, ahead of the rest of the population.

This is just a proposal. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) awaits the opinion of its own committee of experts, which will vote on Tuesday.

This committee previously suggested that it could prioritize healthcare personnel and critical workers, because immunizing them will provide a “multiplier effect”: not only are they essential cogs in the health response and the economy, but they are in contact with many people.

In practice, these ethical, epidemiological, and economic considerations can be ignored in the initial rush of doses.

There are still problems to be solved: while it can be easy to focus on nursing homes and hospitals, how are pharmacists and doctors supposed to confirm that a person is really an essential worker or has two underlying conditions?

In addition, the Trump administration has said that it will not be subject to the advice of its scientists and that retirement homes will receive Pfizer / BioNTech vaccines in mid-December in the event of a regulatory green light.