Carriers 60 years and older are eligible for COVID-19 vaccine next week as the state shifts to age

Government Janet Mills said Friday that Maine is eligible for the advancing COVID-19 vaccine, replacing a previous system that prefers vaccine shots for individuals with high-risk medical conditions or who work in the front line.

Under the new plan, all Maine residents between the ages of 60 and 69 will be eligible for vaccination from Wednesday. The decision provides access to vaccines for an additional 200,000 Mainers, even as the state continues to vaccinate the estimated 193,000 individuals 70 years and older who are currently eligible.

Looking ahead, Maine expects to make vaccinations available to those in their 50s in April, to those in their 40s in May, and to those in their 30s in June. Individuals under the age of 30, including children admitted as a vaccine, will be targeted in July and beyond, according to the time frame set out Friday.

Mills and dr. Nirav Shah, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said the controversial decision to adopt an age-based system stems from scientific research showing that age is one of the strongest indicators of serious illness or death as a result. of COVID-19. . More than 85 percent of COVID deaths in Maine were under 70 and older, and 98 percent were older than 50.

“Since Maine does have the oldest population … this approach, which differs from the approach in other states, will benefit most people in Maine the fastest,” Mills said during a virtual news conference. ‘I’m trying to save lives here and trying to get shots in the arms as quickly as possible. After consulting science and considering the many considerations, I believe that this approach by balance is the right way for our state. ”

More than 16 percent of Maine’s population – or 217,667 people – received at least one dose of vaccine, and 8.2 percent received both doses to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

Mills said the goal is to ‘do the greatest amount of good for most people in the shortest amount of time’. The governor predicted that an aging system would improve efficiency by eliminating the logistical nightmares that confirm someone is eligible due to medical conditions or their work, while providing additional predictability during the pandemic.

But the decision will guarantee many Mainers who work in an essential job at a higher risk, such as teachers, grocery stores or restaurant workers – as well as the hundreds of thousands of residents with underlying medical conditions. While government officials have announced plans for vaccination clinics dedicated solely to teachers, they will be able to get a chance based on age.

Shah acknowledged that not everyone will be happy with the change.

“We are charged with decisions about public health, not so much decisions of individual patients,” he said. ‘On an individual level, we realize that this approach can make some people hope for more. But at a population level, given our goal of reducing the number of Maine people dying from COVID, this is the strategy we believe will get us there the fastest and, in our opinion, the fairest. ‘

MAINE NOT ALONE

Maine joins a small but growing number of states or states using age as the sole or primary criterion for vaccination.

This week, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont said his state would pursue an age-based approach, although Connecticut also pushed all teachers, school staff and child care workers to the front of the vaccination line. Nebraska has also moved away from giving people with high-risk medical conditions higher priority and would rather focus largely on age.

And across the Atlantic, UK officials announced on Friday that the next phase of vaccinations in the country is based on age rather than occupation. As in Maine, UK officials said the approach to age would be simpler and faster.

In doing so, Maine and other states separate the official recommendations of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, the federal government gives the states wide discretion in implementing vaccination campaigns, and even the federal leadership has evolved in recent weeks in response to the latest science and the pace of vaccine production.

Jennifer Tolbert, director of state health reform at the Kaiser Family Foundation, expects other states to adopt age-based vaccination strategies as well.

“Not all states have the older population that Maine does, but I think the appeal of this age-based prioritization is that it’s simple,” Tolbert said Friday afternoon. ‘It’s an easy message to convey. You can work through the groups. ”

Tolbert said that there should be strong arguments that people with high risk medical conditions should also be given priority. Although Rhode Island adopts a system based mostly on age, it also increases suitability for younger individuals with five specific health conditions: diabetes, heart disease, lung disease, kidney disease, or affected immune systems.

“We are still in a situation where we have limited the vaccine, and there are many more people who need the vaccine than they can get,” Tolbert said. So there are compromises. Governors and other government officials have to make decisions about these compromises … and there are no good answers. ”

APPOINTMENT GATES OPEN

Within an hour of Mills’ announcement, some health care providers began planning appointments for people aged 60 to 69 next week. Maine’s two largest healthcare networks that have performed many vaccinations so far, MaineHealth and Northern Light Health, welcome the move.

Entrepreneurs who suddenly – and unexpectedly – settled on the point of vaccination also praised the change.

Brenda Buchanan, a 63-year-old attorney in Portland, expected the next phase to apply to those 65 and older. Although she was satisfied that her 65-year-old husband would benefit, Buchanan was concerned that she had a different vaccination schedule than her wife.

When she learned on Friday that she would also be eligible and when she received an email from her healthcare provider about scheduling appointments, Buchanan saw it as a step in the direction that the couple had more freedom to be together again in the world. to come out even if they continue to wear masks and take out orders.

“We’ve been doing this for almost a year,” Buchanan said. “We managed to stay safe. Let us be patient. But on the other hand, you really want to feel ‘OK, I’m part of those who are moving back to a normal life. I also have family members that I would like to see, and we do not do that for obvious reasons. ”

George Parr of Portland, a 69-year-old manager of seafood wholesaler Upstream Trucking, said he was happy to next stand for a vaccination. Parr, a cancer survivor, said his company was careful with the precautions during the pandemic ‘because if someone in Upstream gets sick, we will not work. I mean, my whole plant would shut down. ”

He said it makes sense to vaccinate according to age because older people have more serious consequences if they get the virus. While he knows people in their thirties who contracted the virus that became ‘very sick’, the disease was not severe enough to kill them.

“But you get older, and you don’t fight (against your) weight,” Parr said.

178 NEW THINGS

The Mills administration announced the strategy shift on a day when the Maine CDC reported 178 new cases of COVID-19. Although no additional deaths were reported Friday, the Maine CDC reported 41 additional deaths on Wednesday and Thursday that were identified during periodic investigations of key records dated January 26.

Although the number of newly reported infections varies daily, the overall rate has shown downward in recent weeks. The seven-day moving average of new cases rose to 155 on Friday, slightly higher than a daily average of 140 cases for the week ending February 18, but lower than 207 for the week ending February 11. . reaches a high of 625 on January 15 amid a boom after the holidays.

The Maine CDC has detected 44,295 confirmed or probable cases of COVID-19 since the coronavirus was first detected in the state in March. A total of 701 individuals died in Maine after contracting COVID-19. Maine has consistently had one of the lowest infection and mortality rates in the country.

The number of Maine people hospitalized with COVID-19 on Friday was 68, including 23 in critical care and nine in ventilators. That’s less than a third of the state’s high of 207 hospitalizations on Jan. 13.

Vaccine shipments to the Maine CDC are expected to increase by more than 8 percent next week to a total of 30,080. In addition, the pharmacies Walmart, Sam’s Club and Walgreens in Maine are expected to receive 8,980 doses.

In addition, a panel of outside advisers from the Food and Drug Administration on Friday recommended that a third vaccine, developed by Johnson & Johnson, be approved by the FDA to give an emergency permit as early as Saturday. It will open the door next week for extra doses for Maine and other states.

Maine’s top-heavy age demographics, combined with the fact that federal vaccines are based on the total population of states, means it will likely take longer for the state to be vaccinated by the oldest residents. According to the latest data from the Maine CDC, approximately 74,000 of the 193,000 residents aged 70 and older should not have received their first dose of vaccine, although it has dropped by thousands daily.

Meanwhile, two more high-volume vaccination clinics are expected to open in southern Maine next week – one at the Portland Expo run by Northern Light Health and one in Sanford run by MaineHealth. They will complement the massive vaccination centers currently operating at the former Scarborough Downs Racecourse and at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor.

Staff Writer Meredith Goad contributed to this report.

“Previous

Next »