CDC committee gathers to discuss who gets vaccine first
The last committee that will sign off on who first gets COVID-19 vaccine met virtually Friday, not to make any decisions but to discuss what it will do when the time comes.
The CDC’S Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices sets guidelines for who should get vaccines once they’re authorized by the Food and Drug Administration. It held one of its three-times-a-year open meetings last week, ending with a full-day discussion of COVID-19 vaccines on Friday.
The committee, called ACIP, will make the crucial decision on who should be first in line to get COVID-19 vaccines when they become available.
No final determinations will be made until the Food and Drug Administration approves a specific COVID-19 vaccine, as different vaccines work better or worse in different age groups or in people with different underlying medical conditions.
However, the outlines are becoming clearer. In line with other government groups which has previously made recommendations to CDC, the first four groups look to be these:
Health care personnel
Vaccinating this group preserves health care capacity essential to the nation’s COVID-19 response. People who work in this field are at higher risk for getting COVID-19 because they’re exposed at work, and generally they can’t work from home. They also belong disproportionally to racial and ethnic minority groups.
The group contains an estimated 21 million people, said Dr. Mary Chamberland, who presented to the committee on the ethics of vaccine allocation.
Their work is crucial to the overall functioning of society and their ability to stay healthy helps to minimize disruption to society and the economy, Chamberland said. They are at higher risk because they are often unable to work from home. They include approximately 87 million people.
Adults with high-risk medical conditions
This includes people with medical conditions that put them at higher risk of severe illness and death from COVID-19. The list, which changes as more becomes known about the virus, includes cancer, chronic kidney disease, COPD, heart conditions, obesity, sickle cell disease, smoking and diabetes. It includes about 100 million people.
People 65 and older
Vaccinating this group would reduce sickness and death from COVID-19 as they are at higher risk for severe illness and death. They make up about 53 million people.
Altogether, these four groups equal approximately 261 million out of a U.S. population of 328 million.
While much is still unknown, other questions about vaccines are beginning to be answered.
Women who are breastfeeding can definitely get vaccinated, at least with one of the front runner-vaccines. Later vaccines may be based on live SARSCOV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19 and then the discussion might be different. None of the first few vaccines expected to become available fall into that category.