How you will know it’s your turn for COVID-19 vaccine.
As rollout progresses, notifications get harder
Will you get a text from your doctor? Or will you be able to check the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website to know when it’s your turn in line?
As COVID-19 vaccines roll out to limited groups of people across the United States, how people are told they’re eligible to get their shots may become increasingly less clear as bigger groups step up next in line while supplies remain limited, public health experts say and state vaccination plans show.
“I think it’s going to be a little bit murky,” said Katie Greene, a visiting policy associate at the Duke-margolis Center for Health Policy.
In Phase 1a of the vaccine rollout, health care workers and residents of long-term-care facilities are being vaccinated. “These are populations that are relatively easy to reach because they’re in discrete locations,” Greene said.
During the next phase of the rollout, people 75 and older and front-line essential workers should be prioritized, according to recommendations from the CDC’S Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. Then Phase 1c will include people 65 to 74 and people 16 to 64 who have high-risk medical conditions, plus other essential workers.
“The thing that you can recognize right away is that these are groups that are much harder to reach,” Greene said.
Federal officials with the Operation Warp Speed campaign hope that around 50 million people will have received their first of two shots of a COVID-19 vaccine by the end of January, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said earlier this week.
Azar has said the government will have enough supply so that every American who wants a vaccine can get it by summer. But the government has left it up to states to implement mass vaccination programs, which vary widely. As with many other policy decisions in the pandemic – from testing protocols to lockdown restrictions – states will have to tailor their vaccine rollouts to their specific needs, including how they communicate eligibility, Greene said.
Potentially adding to the confusion: Some states may move forward into different phases as others lag because vaccines are allocated according to the number of adults in each state.
State vaccine distribution plans submitted to the CDC cover broadly of how states will communicate with their populations, and the plans vary on specifics of how people who are eligible to receive a vaccine at a given time will be informed as states move between phases of rollout.
Many states will rely on traditional media campaigns throughout their vaccine distribution communication campaigns. Plans mention press conferences from governors, social media efforts, text and email campaigns and outreach to community groups.
The CDC says it will rely on VaccineFinder.org to show availability nationally once the supply of vaccine expands to the general population.