An advisory committee of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Sunday recommended that people aged 75 and older and certain key front-line workers be next in line for COVID-19 vaccines.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted 13-1 to advise the CDC to include those 75-year-olds and more key front-line workers, including emergency responders and teachers, in the next phase of coronavirus vaccinations, reported several press releases on Sunday.
These recommendations would apply to phase 1b of the vaccination process, after the committee and the CDC advised that health workers and residents of nursing homes and long-term care institutions receive the first vaccinations in the country. Phase 1b will target the vaccination of about 50 million people by the end of February, according to him New York Times.
ACIP also decided that the groups that should be prioritized in Phase 1c are adults aged 65 to 74 and those aged 16 to 64 who have underlying medical conditions. The phase will also involve other key workers, such as correction officers, postal workers, public transport workers and food supply workers, who were not included in the first two stages.
The Advisory Group stated that it had decided on the priority groups on the basis of information from scientists, ethicists, vaccination experts and the general public, NBC News reported.
José Romero, president of ACIP and secretary of the Arkansas Department of Health, said the groups were selected “to address the current shortage of vaccine supplies and to address those most at risk for disease.” CNN reported.
CDC Director Robert Redfield
Robert Redfield CDC Committee Votes to Recommend Modern Emergency Vaccine Hill’s Morning Report – Presented by Mastercard – Congress Towards COVID-19 Improvement, Omnibus Agreement Trump official imposed immunity on herd, calling for low-risk Americans, emails show MORE will review the ACIP recommendations and determine whether the Agency adopts it as official guidance. During the meeting, ACIP mentioned that its advice is not mandatory, as each state could adjust the recommendations for its own population, according to the Times.
Public health experts initially indicated that they would allow a larger group of essential workers to receive the vaccine before older adults. But ACIP member Kathleen Dooling noted that those aged 75 and over accounted for 25 percent of COVID-19 hospitalizations, even though they accounted for 8 percent of the population, according to NBC News.
The recommendations come after the Americans received the first doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and after the Food and Drug Administration approved the Moderna vaccine last week. Now, about 6 million doses of Moderna vaccine are transported across the country.
ACIP issued its guide as the US confirmed 17.8 million COVID-19 cases and 317,408 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
It also comes since the country has counted more than 150,000 new cases every day since early December and as the US prepares for the holidays. COVID-19-related hospitalizations have also remained over 100,000 every day since Dec. 2, according to the COVID follow-up project.