An influential group of California health experts is sticking to Gavid Newsom’s decision for the time being to make age the primary criterion for getting the COVID-19 vaccine. The decision, announced today, upsets advocates who hope the group will recommend bringing disabled people and people with chronic medical conditions to the forefront, along with those aged 65 and over.
‘My disability makes my immune system very weak. If I get a simple cold, it goes to my lungs and I struggle to breathe, ‘Dats Garcia of Chatsworth wrote in advance of Wednesday’s meeting of the state’s vaccine advisory committee, where the decision was announced. ‘My doctor told me that if I became COVID, I might not survive. My worker (personal attendant) has already told me that they will not take the vaccine. I am very worried that I will not survive this pandemic. ”
The outside panel of experts convened by government officials to determine the vaccination priorities in California decided after investigating that older people are much more likely to be hospitalized or die of COVID-19 than even people with significant disabilities or medical conditions, dr. Oliver Brooks, the group’s leader.
Disabled people and people with chronic conditions will be vaccinated after people aged 65+ and some groups of essential workers such as teachers and farm workers – but still in front of the general public – as public servants accept the panel’s recommendations. Disability advocates are pushing for Newsom to move into the vaccine order, and he could ignore the group’s proposal.
Dr. Erica Pan, the state epidemiologist, said the group also acknowledges that although 8.5 million people are currently eligible for the vaccine, California has received only about 6.7 million doses.
“These are extremely challenging decisions we are making,” Pan said.
In mid-January, California suddenly pointed to age as the primary criteria to facilitate and expedite a widely criticized and chaotic explosion of vaccines. Christina Mills, executive director of the California Foundation for Independent Living Centers, said the attorneys are unsuitable for disability.
They had hoped that government officials would announce a plan this week to move disabled people on the priority list, but the statement never came.
Instead, dr. Mark Ghaly, the state’s top health official, said on Tuesday that he was aware of the community’s concerns and spoke of “the opportunity to galvanize that we will announce later.”
The remark does not sit well with Mills, who is living with a genetic bone disorder known as osteogenesis imperfecta, and uses a wheelchair and help from personal assistants to live alone.
“Honestly, it just makes me even angrier,” Mills told CalMatters. ‘It’s like what’s we waiting for? The state has not determined how to inoculate the vaccine for people like us. ”
The federal Centers for Disease Control has recommended that people with underlying medical conditions such as diabetes, cancer, cystic fibrosis and obesity receive the vaccine along with those aged 65-74, to people aged 75 and older and frontline workers. But states may adjust those priorities.
Colorado, for example, will vaccinate people with two or more high-risk medical conditions, along with those over 65. Florida currently vaccinates people considered by hospital providers to be “extremely vulnerable” to COVID-19, along with people 65 and older. In contrast, Kansas placed people under 65 with high-risk conditions behind people 65 and older, inmates, and those living in other ‘community neighborhoods’ that are not nursing homes.
But California has changed its priority to 65+ based on studies showing that age is a greater predictor of death than disability. (Some research suggests that certain conditions, such as Down syndrome, contribute to a higher risk of dying from COVID-19 than the average person, but the research is mixed.)
Even as vaccines become more available, Mills and other advocates say it is difficult to immunize people with disabilities and chronic medical conditions. Paratransit services available to the disabled will not wait hours in a mass vaccination clinic. Some people are homebound. Some will not be able to stand in long queues, or may need an accompanying caregiver.
To give advice on the fact that people are trying to help themselves announce disabilities they do not have, some advocates suggest that the state prioritize only certain groups, such as those receiving home support services, a state program for the elderly, blind or disabled. people serving about 600,000 Californians. Other advocates, however, say people need to be able to “identify” themselves to speed up and simplify vaccinations. The state is setting up another committee to work out the details.
As COVID-19 cases in California continue to decline after the holiday boom, nearly 3.8 million people received their first or second vaccine dose, less than 10% of the population. After Pan vaccination figures lagged behind most other states, Pan now ranks 29th, Pan said today.
Vaccinations of residents and staff of nursing homes should be completed by the end of February, and by the end of March in the care facilities, Pan said.
However, the vaccine supply remains limited, with some provinces reporting that they do not even have enough to extend vaccinations to teachers and essential workers who, in theory, can be vaccinated with Californians 65 years and older.
As health officials continue to make difficult decisions about who will get the vaccine next in the midst of so much need, Hector M. Ramirez, who virtually attended the committee meeting, said in the meeting’s online chat:
‘As a Native American who is also Latinx & Disabled, I no longer know what equity means. I do know what sadness looks like now more than ever before. I lost four family members. And fear (I) will lose more. ”
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