Priority of some by age unfair, panel says

Many states prioritized COVID-19 vaccines for people over 75, then moved to those over 65, but they shouldn’t keep stepping down by age, an advisory committee to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday.

The approach is inherently unfair to minorities, committee members said, because they have a lower life-expectancy and because people of color are dying of COVID-19 at younger ages than white Americans.

“I’m not in favor of any part of an age eligibility bracket under 65,” said José Romero, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock and chairman of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

The committee disagreed with plans in some states to require people to show proof that they have two medical conditions on a pre-specified list before being allowed to be vaccinated.

People with two medical conditions that are well-controlled might be at lower risk of serious COVID-19 than those with one out-of-control condition or with a less common disease that wasn’t frequent enough make the list.

For example, although Type 2 diabetes is considered a highest-risk condition, Type 1 isn’t always, even though people with this autoimmune version are at the same risk, noted Katherine Poehling, a professor of pediatrics at Wake Forest School of Medicine.

Yes, there will be some people who lie about their medical conditions, said Helen Talbot, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. “There’s always someone who finds a way to cheat.”

But it’s better to let in a few cheaters than to deny vaccine to people who really need it, she said.

Every state makes its own vaccination allotment plan, so there’s a lot of mixed messages about who should be prioritized in the next few months as vaccine supply remains tight, committee members said.

For that reason, committee members said the Johnson & Johnson vaccine should be added to the general pool of available vaccines.