Federal prisons to get COVID-19 vaccine early – for staffs
WASHINGTON – The federal prison system will be among the first government agencies to receive the coronavirus vaccine, though initial allotments of the vaccine will be given to staff and not to inmates, even though sickened prisoners vastly outnumber sickened staff, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.
Officials at the federal Bureau of Prisons instructed wardens and other staff members to prepare to receive the vaccine within weeks, according to people familiar with the matter.
The internal Bureau of Prisons documents, obtained by the AP, say initial allotments of the vaccine “will be reserved for staff.” It was not clear how many doses will be available to the Bureau of Prisons.
As of Monday, there were 3,624 federal inmates and 1,225 Bureau of Prisons staff members who have tested positive for COVID-19.
Since the first case was reported in March, 18,467 inmates and 1,736 staff have recovered from the virus. So far, 141 federal inmates and two staff members have died.
There have been more than 12 million cases in the U.S. and over 257,000 deaths. But prisons are a concern because social distancing is virtually nonexistent, and inmates sleep in close quarters and share bathrooms. In the early days of the pandemic, prisoners and staff members said the Bureau of Prisons ran short on basic supplies such as soap.
The internal Bureau of Prisons records also detail how the agency worked with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Trump administration’s vaccine program, known as “Operation Warp Speed,” to secure the vaccines. The documents say the administration’s initial distribution will include the federal prison system.
Health officials warned for more than a decade about the dangers of epidemics for those incarcerated.
Nearly 25% of inmate cases and 30% of staff cases were reported within the past month. Some staff members said they are apprehensive about receiving the vaccine because of what they feared was a lack of long-term testing and possible side effects.
Though the virus is also rising in state prisons nationwide, plans for administering doses in those prisons would be handled by the states.
Government guidance has suggested that states should be ready to receive initial doses of the vaccine within weeks, though officials have said initial supplies of the vaccine will be scarce and rationed. While health care workers may be among those to receive initial doses, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s leading infectious-disease expert, has said the general population can likely expect first doses of a vaccine starting in April.
No vaccine has been approved by the Trump administration yet, a necessary step before any doses can be delivered. Pfizer formally asked U.S. regulators Friday to allow emergency use of its COVID-19 vaccine, starting the clock on a process that could bring limited first shots as early as next month.
The Bureau of Prisons was accused of missteps and scattershot policies since the virus reached the U.S. earlier this year.
An inspector general’s office report last week concluded that at one prison complex in Louisiana, which emerged as an early coronavirus hot spot, prison officials had failed to comply with federal health guidance and left inmates with the virus in their housing units for a week without being isolated.
Staff members, advocates and inmates at other prisons around the country described a hodgepodge of coronavirus policies, being told by supervisors they don’t need to wear masks and having broken thermometers for temperature checks.
A spokesman for the Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.