-
Residents of Florida and Texas aged 65 and older can now get vaccinated against coronavirus.
-
The decision proposes CDC recommendations that say essential workers and people over 75 should be next.
-
“The problem is that people will be 73, 74 at the back of the queue for a young 21-year-old worker who is considered ‘essential’,” said Ron DeSantis, Governor of Florida.
-
Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Florida and Texas have begun distributing coronavirus vaccines to residents over the age of 65.
Last week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an executive order granting vaccines to nursing residents and staff, people 65 and older, medical workers and anyone considered “extremely vulnerable to COVID-19”. Texas had done the same a few days before and the people who were 65 and older, along with those who had certain conditions, were given the green light to start vaccinating.
“Focusing on people who are 65 and older or who have comorbidities will protect the most vulnerable populations,” Imelda Garcia, president of Texas’ Vaccine Vaccination Expert, said in a statement.
These decisions are in conflict with the guidelines set by an advisory group at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC recommended that health care workers and residents and staff in the nursing home be first in line, followed by emergency workers and people over the age of 75. These recommendations, the group wrote, are intended to preserve the functioning of society and death and serious illness as much as possible. ‘
But in Florida and Texas, essential workers are being pushed out of the next vaccination phase.
The problem is that people aged 73, 74 will be at the back of the queue for a young 21-year-old worker who is considered ‘essential’. “I don’t think that makes sense,” DeSantis told a news conference on Wednesday.
None of the states vaccinated everyone in the first priority group.
Literal vaccine lines have been formed
The few places in Florida and Texas that began administering vaccinations to people over 65 quickly depleted the stock.
The Lee County Department of Health, which includes Fort Myers, began vaccinating people 65 and older on Monday. Provincial staff reported that they would have 300 doses available on Monday, three on Tuesday and three on Wednesday.
Photos from local store The News-Press showed Fort Myers residents Sunday night in the Estero Park and Rec Center, 19 hours before the clinic’s site was to open.
The next morning the line stretched around the building. The clinic doses ran out by noon.
Similarly, the Wise Health System in Decatur, Texas, on Wednesday began shooting at residents over the age of 65 on a first-come, first-served basis. People lined up more than two hours before the clinic opened, and doses took off at 8:30 p.m.
“We know the 65+ clinic has not gone as smoothly as we would have liked,” the Wise Health System wrote on its Facebook page on Wednesday. “The decision was made to supply the vaccine to this critical age group on Tuesday morning and it was implemented in less than 24 hours.”
Each state decides how to distribute the vaccine supply
The CDC guidelines for the distribution of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines state that after healthcare workers and nursing homes and staff (priority group 1a), the following doses should go to people over 75 and essential workers – such as teachers, agricultural workers, grocery store employees. , and public transport workers (group 1b). Then Americans should be 65 to 74 years old, along with people under 64 who have high-risk medical conditions, and any other essential workers.
In total, the U.S. has 24 million health workers and staff and nursing homes. As of Saturday, 9.5 million doses of vaccine have been distributed. In particular, Florida is expected to receive 970,000 doses by the end of the year, but according to the Washington Post, 1.1 million health workers and 270,000 nursing home residents. Texas has about 1.4 million health workers and 300,000 people in nursing homes, but Gov. Greg Abbott said the state will receive 1.2 million doses this month.
“There is no need to ensure that all of your 1a group is vaccinated before you begin 1b vaccinations,” John Hellerstedt, commissioner of the Texas Department of Public Health, wrote in a letter to health care facilities on Wednesday.
The CDC instructions are guidelines only – it is up to states to prioritize their shots. A recent report from the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 45 states follow the CDC recommendations. Massachusetts, Nevada, New Hampshire and Wyoming deviated slightly by including law enforcers in their first round of vaccinations. Massachusetts also includes inmates and those in homeless shelters in its first group.
Texas, meanwhile, has decided that residents’ occupations, at least not yet, will prevail.
“Texas has clearly come down on the side of ‘we are going to focus on those who are most at risk for illness and death,'” Jen Kates, senior vice president at the Kaiser Family Foundation, told CNBC.
“Our priority is the elderly”
In Florida, about 4.4 million people are older than 65 and more than 3 million are older than 70 years. Between May and August, 78% of coronavirus deaths were aged 65 years.
“Our priority is the elderly population,” DeSantis told a news conference Wednesday.
Brett Giroir, assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services, said the decision made sense.
“Because it’s the people who go to the hospitals. It’s not the 24-year-old frontline worker who is at risk of contracting the infection and very, very low to get serious results from it,” Giroir said. told Fox News. Sunday and added: “as the hospitals get full, the first priority should really be to save lives and reduce the burden on hospitals.”
However, essential workers are at increased risk for exposure to the coronavirus, and an excessive proportion are poor and non-white.
“Black and Hispanic workers in Florida are dying excessively from COVID,” said Dr. Terry Adirim, a physician in emergency medicine at Florida Atlantic University, told the Palm-Beach Post, adding: “It’s the people who work in the grocery stores and deliver the groceries, the management of buses, that endanger their lives. , so that those who can work from home can work from home. ‘
COVID-19 also killed many young people. One study found that more than 3,300 Americans between the ages of 18 and 34 were hospitalized with COVID-19 annually from April to June, and that 21% required intensive care. About 3% died.
Between July and August, people between 20 and 29 made up the largest percentage of coronavirus cases in the US – more than 20%.
Aria Bendix and Hilary Brueck reported.
Read the original article on Business Insider