FRONT-LINE WORKERS, ADULTS 75+ NEXT IN LINE FOR VACCINE

CDC panel recommends teachers, grocery store employees for next group

Grocery store employees, teachers, emergency workers and other people on the front lines of America’s workforce should be next to get the coronavirus vaccine, along with adults ages 75 and older, a federal advisory panel said Sunday.

The recommendations, which came two days after regulators authorized a second coronavirus vaccine, will guide state authorities in deciding who should have priority to receive limited doses of shots made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. Nearly 2.9 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine have been distributed, and 556,208 of those shots were given as of midday Sunday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The groups designated Sunday include about 49 million people, some of whom could begin getting shots early in the new year.

The priorities represent a compromise between the desire to shield people most likely to catch and transmit the virus, because they cannot socially distance or work from home, and the effort to protect people who are most prone to serious complications and death.

An estimated 30 million front-line essential workers labor in meat plants, grocery stores, prisons, public transit and other key areas, and cannot work remotely. They are a priority because they play a critical role in keeping society functioning, and they live or work in high-risk, high-transmission communities.

Adults 75 and older — about 19 million people — were also included in this priority group because they account for 25 percent of hospitalizations and a significant share of deaths linked to COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted 13 to 1 to recommend these workers and older adults be prioritized in what is known as Phase 1b.

That decision arrived the same day the first doses of Moderna’s vaccine began shipping out, along with a second wave of shipments from Pfizer, together destined for more than 3,700 locations. The shot cannot come soon enough for a nation experiencing a surge of coronavirus cases and COVID-19 deaths, with more than 317,000 people succumbing since the start of the pandemic.

The Moderna vaccine will soon join the 28,275 Pfizer vaccines already in San Diego County available for civilian acute health care workers.

The county is home to 82,623 health care workers toiling in hospital or psychiatric facilities, 39,755 of whom are considered “highest risk” and will first receive vaccines.

The 28,000-plus vaccines will cover about 72 percent of those slated to be inoculated until more vaccines arrive in California.

The committee’s vote Sunday also addressed an even larger group of people poised to gain access in the third phase. That larger group of 129 million people — part of Phase 1c — is made up of a second tier of essential workers, adults 65 to 74 and adults 16 to 64 with high-risk medical conditions.

The subsequent tier of essential workers represents 10 broad areas, including finance, information technology, food service, energy, transportation and logistics.

But the desire to expand the pool of people receiving vaccinations collides with the reality that doses are limited. Federal officials anticipate having enough doses to vaccinate 100 million people by the end of February.

The priority groups advanced on Sunday exceed the number of shots government officials expect to be available in the first months of 2021. In December, officials have said there are only enough doses to give 20 million people a first shot. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines each require two doses.

In January, the anticipated supply will be enough for another 30 million people, with an added 50 million accounted for in February, Nancy Messonnier, a top CDC official, told the group Sunday, citing projections from the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed.

Advisory group members made clear that the broad outlines will give states f lexibility to make priority decisions locally. States probably will move through the phases at different speeds. Decisions on moving to the next phase of vaccination are up to states and will depend on demand and the details of local vaccine rollout.

“These are going to be imperfect,” said Grace Lee, a committee member and a professor of pediatrics at Stanford University’s medical school, referring to the industries listed in the two groups of essential workers.

Henry Bernstein, professor of pediatrics at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, said he opposed the recommendations because he wanted to see people ages 65 to 74 included with those 75 and older.

The pandemic is putting severe stress on state and regional hospitals. San Diego County on Sunday reported 1,264 hospitalizations of COVID-19 patients and an additional 320 COVID-19 patients in ICUs.

Public health off icials also reported 3,493 COVID-19 infections as of Saturday and no new deaths, bringing the county’s total to 126,465 cases and the death toll remaining at 1,280.

Prior to Sunday’s report, a record 3,611 COVID-19 infections were reported Friday.