Some medical conditions excluded from vaccine line

Next phase of COVID vaccination starts March 15, but leaves out some medically vulnerable

With damaged airways, Kai Levenson- Cupp, 19, lives in fear that COVID-19 could worsen the asthma that already leaves him gasping for breath.

Brooke Vittimberga, 25, has a weakened immune system from complications of a bone marrow transplant, so is also very vulnerable to the virus.

But neither of these serious health problems is likely to get them to the front of the COVID-19 vaccine line, despite the state’s newly expanded eligibility criteria that will pave the way for millions more Californians to get vaccinated starting March 15. For vaccine access, they have the wrong diagnoses.

“I’m terrified,” said Levenson- Cupp of Alameda, whose lungs and trachea were badly burned in a childhood accident and now uses an inhaler to help breathe during exercise, allergies and even the most routine viral ailments.

With vaccine doses still scarce, California on Friday unveiled a list of high-risk conditions and disabilities that qualify for the next phase of vaccination: Cancer, pregnancy, stage 4 kidney disease, oxygendependent lung disease, Down syndrome, sickle cell disease, heart failure, severe diabetes, Type 2 diabetes and a weakened immune system from a solid organ transplant.

The list of 10 conditions is narrow, designed to prevent a surge of demand from anyone with a minor ailment. Health care providers must verify a person’s health status. This next phase will add another 4 to 6 million people to the current list of 13 million vaccineeligible Californians.

But an array of other serious medical conditions — such as cystic fibrosis, dementia, hypertension, Type 1 diabetes and some rare genetic diseases — are not included, even though there is early evidence that they’re linked with worse outcomes in COVID-19 patients.

The dilemma is leaving millions of Californians with rare conditions at risk, critics say, as the state tries to balance the