Lamont reveals vaccine advisory group

Members will guide, prioritize state’s distribution plan

By Emily Brindley

Gov. Ned Lamont on Friday announced the full membership of Connecticut’s recently formed vaccine advisory group, which will help guide the state in distributing an eventual COVID-19 vaccine, with a particular focus on addressing existing health disparities and prioritizing vulnerable communities.

Lamont announced the existence of the group on Sept. 21, but at the time said only that the group would be co-chaired by Acting Commissioner of Public Health Dr. Deidre Gifford and CEO of Trinity Health of New England Dr. Reggie Eadie.

On Friday, Lamont filled out the roster and announced the 20 total members of the main advisory group, along with the dozens of members on the advisory group’s three subcommittees. The subcommittees each have a more specific focus, including allocation, communications and science.

The members hail from a wide range of backgrounds, and the main advisory group includes infectious disease doctors, health directors and state representatives and senators.

The advisory group will guide the state in its efforts to communicate openly with the public about the eventual COVID-19 vaccine, and to distribute the vaccine in an equitable and logical way. Vaccine distribution is likely to be particularly tricky when a vaccine first becomes available, state officials have said, because at first there’s likely to be only a very limited supply for the state.

One goal of the group, Lamont said in September, is that “when we have the wide distribution of the vaccine readily available we have people confident they can take it, they can take it safely and it’ll make a difference.”

The state expects a vaccine to become available sometime next year, although the exact timeline is unclear.

Unlike the state’s now-disbanded Reopen CT Advisory Group, the vaccine advisory group will be entirely transparent and publicly accessible, Lamont has said. The group’s meetings, which are expected to begin in mid-October, will be open to the public.

In mid-September, the Pew Research Center reported that about half of Americans said they would not take a COVID-19 vaccine if it became immediately available.

The Courant previously reported that, also in September, a survey estimated that 63% of Connecticut residents planned to get vaccinated for COVID-19, with another 20% not planning to get vaccinated and 17% unsure.

That skepticism is particularly prevalent in Black communities, which the medical