If you’re on the front lines in the war on COVID-19, you should go to the front of the line for a COVID vaccination, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is recommending.
That includes around 21 million healthcare workers.
Next should come other essential workers, along with the chronically ill and people 65 or older.
The ACIP voiced its views on safety and distribution of the forthcoming COVID-19 vaccines Monday. The group did so as a highly effective formula from Pfizer/BioNTech is under FDA consideration for emergency authorization, Moderna’s is close behind on that same track and others are in the near pipeline.
At the Monday ACIP meeting, Moncef Slaoui, PhD, chief science adviser for Operation Warp Speed, said as many as 20 million Americans could be vaccinated in December.
In coverage of the session by USA Today, Slaoui is quoted as emphasizing that individual states will make the final determination on when each subgroup can proceed to an inoculation site.
The states may have plenty of work just getting buy-in from their respective residents: The newspaper cites a recent Gallup poll showing only 58% of Americans are willing to get the COVID vaccine.
Vaccine hesitancy is common in many countries, said Ogbonnaya Omenka, PhD, a public health specialist at Butler University.
Meanwhile the influence of ACIP in vaccine approval “is sort of indirect,” Omenka commented. “Their recommendations are still weighed further before final decisions are made.”
Dave P. has worked in journalism, marketing and public relations for more than 30 years, frequently concentrating on hospitals, healthcare technology and Catholic communications. He has also specialized in fundraising communications, ghostwriting for CEOs of local, national and global charities, nonprofits and foundations.