The U.S. supply of the COVID-19 vaccine is supposed to be limited at first. CDC provides recommendations to federal, state, and local governments about vaccine priority list. The CDC guidelines are based on the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. It is an independent medical and public health expert group.
With these goals in mind, experts made the recommendations:
- Decrease death and serious sickness as much as possible.
- To preserve the functioning of society.
- Reduce the extra burden that COVID-19 has on people already facing disparities.
- The CDC makes recommendations on the priority list
CDC makes recommendations for who can receive the COVID-19 vaccine first. But, each state has its plan to determine who will receive the vaccine first. Please contact your local health department for more information on vaccination in your state.
Who’s the first in the line to have a Covid vaccine?
Vaccine doses are administered from hundreds of hospital hubs – including patients over 80 years of age, home care workers, and health care workers at high danger first in line.
A detailed list of experts will advise the Government about Vaccine Priority. The Joint Committee on Vaccines and Immunization (JCVI) examined statistics on who suffers the most from the disease and who is at the greatest risk of death.
It released interim guidelines earlier in the year. So, it was slightly changed later to move anyone deemed “clinically extremely vulnerable” up the vaccine priority list.
It is as follow:
- Residents of the care home for older people and their carers
- All those over 80 years of age and health and social care staff on the frontlines
- Everybody over 75 years of age
- All those over 70 years of age and individuals deemed to be clinically highly vulnerable
- Everyone over 65 years of age
- All people around 16 and 64 years of age with chronic health problems put them at greater risk of serious disease and mortality.
- Also, those who are 60 years and older
- All those aged 55 and older,
- All of over the age of 50
In Northern Ireland, phase one of vaccines will also focus on home care patients, nurses, and people over 80, and health care workers.
In phase two, authorities will give priority to those above the age of 75. Then they will move to those above the age of 70-plus and those individuals with health conditions. Other adults above 50 years of age will get the vaccine in the third phase.
List of clinical conditions:
- A blood cancer (such as leukemia, lymphoma, or myeloma)
- Diabetes
- Dementia
- A heart problem
- A chest complaint or difficulty breathing, including bronchitis, emphysema, or serious asthma
- A kidney disease
- A liver disease
- Decreased immunity due to sickness or treatment; (such as HIV infection, steroid medication, chemotherapy, or radiotherapy)
- Rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, or psoriasis; (who may require long term immunosuppressive treatments)
- The transplant of an organ
- Had a stroke or a temporary ischaemic attack (TIA)
- The condition of neurological or muscle wasting
- A serious or profound learning disability;
- A problem with your spleens, such as sickle cell disease or the removal of your spleen
- Those who are severely overweight (BMI of 40 and above)
- Was severely mentally ill
Next up: essential employees, older adults, and individuals with medical problems
The next vaccine priority level for coronavirus labels 1b, and 1c of the CDC consists of many other groups. Phase 1b consists of essential workers who communicate with the public. They include frontline workers, teachers, retail store clerks, and transport workers. Phase 1b also consists of people over 75 years of age. Phase 1c includes:
- Adults over 65
- People between 16 and 74 years of age with underlying medical problems
- Other essential (non-frontline) finance, information technology, and media staff
Phase 1b or 1c is where nearly half of the states tend to deviate from the CDC in one or more of the following ways:
- To lower the age of older adults to 65
- To prioritize essential workers over older adults
- Putting older adults and people with chronic medical problems above essential workers
- North Carolina, giving vaccine priority to people with pre-existing conditions above all older adults and essential workers
The CDC estimates that there are about 87 million essential workers. This number includes both frontline and non-front line employees. The Agency has covered at least 53 million people aged 65 and over and more than 100 million adults with high-risk health conditions. All told, phases 1a, 1b, and 1c represent more than 195 million individuals. This is around 60 percent of the U.S. population.
Here is a breakdown of the full CDC vaccine priority list:
- Phase 1a (KFP estimate: 17.6 million). Residents and health care staff at long-term care facilities.
- Phase 1b (CDC estimate: 49 million). Frontline staff and people 75 years of age and older. Some states may start to vaccinate in the next week or two.
- Phase 1c (CDC estimate: 129 million). People aged 65-74 years, people aged 16-64 years with underlying medical problems. (It is hard to tell at this point where this phase will begin.)
When will children receive COVID-19 vaccines?
Short answer: Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said he hopes that his company’s vaccine will be approved for use in children by the summer. Moderna is the first and only company to announce plans to research coronavirus vaccination in children.
Pfizer vaccine has only been approved for emergency use for individuals 16 years of age and over. Children under 16 years of age would not be eligible for vaccination at this stage.
When will police and teachers receive the vaccine?
Starting in May, the second phase of the vaccine will focus on most adult population-under 50.
Teachers, transport employees, store workers, and the military will get priority. Education Secretary Gavin Williamson recently said he needed school workers to be the “top priority” for the vaccine in the next phase of implementation.
Metropolitan Police Chief Dame Cressida Dick said she was “baffled” that frontline staff was not prioritized.
Home Secretary Priti Patel says work is underway to shift “police, fire and frontline workers” up the queue.
Do you need two doses?
To provide the best safety possible, all approved vaccines need two doses.
Initially, researchers advised giving people the second dose three or four weeks after the first dose.
But to ensure that as many people as possible are prevented from being seriously ill or dying with Covid-19, U.K. Chief Medical Officers have decided to extend the gap to 12 weeks.
This decision was based on how the other two-dose vaccinations function.
Some doctors were critical of the decision, fearing that the Pfizer vaccine would be less effective. Few countries have yet followed the United Kingdom’s lead. The WHO has recommended a gap of up to six weeks only in exceptional circumstances.
