Essential workers are likely to move ahead of adults 65 and older and people with high-risk medical conditions when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention signs off on Covid-19 vaccine priority lists, coming after health care workers and people living in long-term care facilities, a meeting of an expert advisory panel made clear Monday.
The intention is to bring many people of color closer to the front of the vaccine priority line — should they want to be vaccinated — in recognition of the fact that the pandemic has disproportionately hit Black and Latino communities.
There was no formal vote by the members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, a group of outside experts that makes recommendations to the CDC on use of vaccines.
But when asked how they felt about moving essential workers closer to the front of the line, there was clear support for the proposal.
“These essential workers are out there putting themselves at risk to allow the rest of us to socially distance. And they come from disadvantaged situations, they come from disadvantaged communities,” said Beth Bell, a global health expert from the University of Washington who is on ACIP and chairs its Covid-19 work group studying the vaccines.
Bell acknowledged people of color may not wish to be vaccinated early or even ever; polling suggests these communities distrust Covid vaccines even more than the American population in general. But principles of equity require addressing the risks people deemed essential workers are facing in the pandemic.
“We need to provide them with the opportunity early on in the process,” she said. “This is an important message to be sending.”
Essential workers include people who work in meat packing plants and other food processing facilities, in municipal wastewater management operations, and in transport. It also includes police and firefighters and, in the current iteration of the ACIP’s plan, teachers. The CDC estimates there are roughly 87 million people in jobs designated as essential services.
An agency within the Department of Homeland Security known as the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA, is responsible for designating which jobs are essential services. At the end of the day, however, state, territorial, and tribal authorities will interpret the recommendations and have leeway in who they deem to be essential.
Though people from racial and ethnic minorities make up 40% of the American population, they account for nearly 60% of Covid cases and 50% of the Covid deaths in this country, according to CDC data. Agency data also show that Black people make up about 38% of essential workers, compared to 27% for both white and Hispanic people. Black people also more commonly work in jobs that expose them to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.
“These workers are essential. They’re fundamental to our response to Covid. And they’re at risk because they work in close proximity to others,” said Henry Bernstein, chief of pediatrics at North Shore University Hospital.
Robert Atmar, an infectious diseases professor at Baylor College of Medicine, said he too favored the plan, noting that essential workers have less opportunity to lower their risk of being exposed to SARS-2 than adults over 65.
Final decisions on who should get priority access to Covid vaccines will be made after the Food and Drug Administration authorizes them under its emergency use authorization protocol.
A vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech is expected to receive an EUA shortly after the FDA’s advisory committee, the Vaccine and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, meets on Dec. 10. Consideration of a vaccine developed by Moderna vaccine will occur at a Dec. 17 VRBPAC meeting.
Once the FDA clears the vaccines for use, the ACIP will meet and issue recommendations on the populations that should be eligible to be vaccinated. CDC Director Robert Redfield is expected to sign off on ACIP’s recommendations immediately after they are made, clearing the way for vaccination efforts to begin across the country.
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Looks like the globalists want to use the poor as guinea pigs
Let the globalists get the vaccine first
I’m 70 and, though healthy, am probably considered “non-essential” since I’m retired. Some might even consider it a broad economic benefit to the country if I and others over 65 simply died! Less in Social Security outlays. To make matters worse, I do not qualify as a racial or ethnic minority. So, after having spent nine months hunkered down with little outside contact, how many more months would you say I have to go before I and my wife “qualify” to get vaccinated? (Not a rhetorical question.) I’m guessing another nine months, for a total of eighteen.
The idea that “essential” workers should come before those 65 and old is absurd. The people who die of the disease, regardless of color, are largely 65 and older. That is what the science says….but, I guess, science doesn’t matter now.
The goal is to eliminate the pandemic. Vaccinating those who are most likely to transmit the virus makes some sense. If you can vaccinate an office nurse (or grocery worker) to avoid giving it to 12 patients, that is worth prioritizing. Hopefully this conversation will be moot soon, when production picks up to meet demand
The CDC’s estimate of “essential” workers is 87 million….yet, the number of people in the U.S. 65 and older is 50 million. And, 80% of deaths from COVID are from the 65 and older age group. So, the proposed plan is to vaccinate a minority of the people who can be carriers, but leave those who will die or become serious ill, will still remain vulnerable… Fortunately, state government decide the actual distribution plan for their residents…and ignore the CDC’s virtual signalling.
The latest ACIP guidance distinguishes “healthcare workers” from “essential workers”. This guidance is, in part, based on modeling disease spread and identifying the most efficient mechanisms when either production limits or vaccination rate limits are a primary contributor to the overall rate (aka bottleneck)
Elise,
You are clearly an essential worker!
The inequity with this thinking is the penalty imposed on those of us who worked hard to succeed in careers that went beyond swinging a mop or driving a bus and taking responsibility for our health. Rewarding those accomplishing none of this is ludicrous. I certainly hope my state leadership does not buy into this victim thinking.
This ideology that you deserve it more than those who are likely to both contract and spread the disease is wild. Its simple math
The article and discussions pit over 65 against POC. What about the 90+ year olds that must interact with healthcare workers may times per week, and have home aid coming in 5 times a week. They are a very high risk of getting COVID, and all but assured to die from it. Essential workers (not all, but large numbers) are at greater rick than many older adults that can stay at home, but it is not a one vs the other case.
I can see healthcare workers, teachers, first responders and fire fighters getting the vaccine first but next in line should be us that are over 65 and those with medical conditions to which the virus is most lethal. The essential worker definition is very broad, almost every worker would some how fit that description.
I agree. Who decides who is “essential” and who is not?
I am fairly high risk, but would have no problem whatsoever leaving my place in line to the young guys who have been taking my trash every Thursday, rain or shine, during the pandemic. Their bosses in the office, I’m not so sure.
The pandemic revealed very clearly precisely the opposite. That 90% of us hold to bs jobs and leaving us at home doing nothing does not have any effect on the end result.
Anytime your definition of “essential worker” is over half the working population, you probably need to define “essential” a little narrower…
You forgot the healthcare workers…
No she didn’t; the first sentence of the article says essential workers will come after healthcare workers & people living in LTC facilities.