Former US surgeon general Antonia Coello de Novello said today that municipal workers can be considered “ first responders ” when they receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
Coello de Novello’s statements came to the fore after San Juan’s mayor, Carmen Yulín Cruz, released a statement yesterday indicating that the city council will begin vaccinating all its employees on Dec. 23. After questioning Dr. Marieli González on social networks about the sequence of the vaccination stages, the mayor assured her that she was following the hierarchy established by the National Guard.
Given this, Coello de Novello said the city council does not “skip phases”.
The Ministry of Health’s vaccination plan specifies that post-vaccination health workers – as part of Phase IA – should continue Phase IB, including personnel identified as first responders, such as police, firefighters, Emergency Management and 9-1 -1 emergency system. This phase also includes elderly people living in long-term care centers or auspices.
“Municipal workers are too first responders [primeros respondedores]. Remember we follow the DOD rules [Departamento de Defensa federal], from the National Guard and the Federal Ministry of Health, but the governor of the place can also decide from his group which one gets vaccinated, but municipal workers are for us first respondersCoello de Novello said in a telephone interview with Subway.
With regard to the mayor’s post, Coello de Novello was of the opinion that the mayor referred to relief workers.
“In that sense I don’t see it as a phase jump,” he said.
Still, he said the Department of Health should clarify their respective vaccine shifts to the public according to their profession and that no priority is given to people who are not caring for patients at this stage. “It’s important to clarify so they don’t believe there are people who think you’re going to get vaccinated under the table by jumping to a person who needs it more than you and many people can assume that has already started “he added.
In her publication on social networks, Dr. González wondered if the San Juan Municipality began vaccinating municipal personnel before the immunization of elderly people in long-term care homes and first responders was completed.
In turn, when Coello de Novello was confronted with complaints that hospitals are administering the vaccine to administrative staff rather than health workers, Coello de Novello stated that the directors of these institutions should give priority to all staff caring for patients.
The parts of hospitals and cities, that is, the mayors and those who run the hospitals, have “free will” that get vaccinated. But every vaccine is used for a person who doesn’t see patients and who is not responsible for health. of the city is a vaccine that was not used correctly “, indicated.
“I believe there will be vaccines for everyone, but the moment something happens and there isn’t for everyone who needs it, that’s the factor we have to take into account. It was given to those who really need it … We need to have a little more responsibility, ”he added.