Making schools safe must be top priority
Obviously, frontline health care workers should receive the vaccine first. That should include the people who clean the places where COVID-19 patients have been treated. Next, or at the same time if enough vaccine is available, should be health care workers in nursing homes. If nursing staff are immunized, patients will be less vulnerable. Visitation should still be disallowed unless patients are immunized as well or until all visitors are immunized.
Next, in my view, should be children in school and their parents and teachers. If this can be done at the schools, that would be ideal. It depends on which vaccine is used and whether it can be kept at the school without losing effectiveness. Getting children back to school should be a top priority, not only for our nation’s education but to allow parents, especially mothers, to go back to work. Children should be required to receive the vaccine in order to return to class, just as immunization for measles, polio and tetanus are required now.
Other essential workers, postal employees, police officers, firefighters and grocery workers should be next in line. While I feel for the economic pain suffered by restaurant workers, they are not essential. When I look at the people eating outdoors in restaurants, they seem mostly young. I feel this is the group spreading the virus. The statistics in the U-T show that the age group of 20-29 years has a large incidence of infection, but low rates of hospitalization and death. So they may not feel endangered but they can pass it on to older people they know or encounter even if not symptomatic. So, though it seems unfair, I feel younger people should be able to receive the vaccine, but they should have to show a certificate that they have received it before they can be admitted to any place indoors or outdoors where large groups of people gather, such as the zoo, concerts, Disneyland and restaurants.
Old people, especially those with preexisting conditions, should be next, and as an old person, I am willing to wait. People who decide not to get immunized for whatever reason, should feel the consequences of their decision — no admission to venues where they can potentially infect others.