The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in the United States earlier this month listed smoking under the conditions that put individuals at high risk of contracting ‘serious COVID-19-associated disease’. of vaccination. As a result, essential workers, especially teachers, are frustrated.
According to a CNN report, teachers in the state of New Jersey have expressed disappointment over the fact that smokers take precedence over essential workers like them.
“We have said from the outset that educators should prioritize the vaccine. This is an important step towards a safer return to personal learning. We have been in constant communication with government officials about educators’ access to vaccination. We have reiterated to them that they must do what is necessary to expedite access, even in the face of revised federal guidelines from the Trump administration and a slow federal implementation of the real vaccine, “said Steve Baker, communications director of New Jersey, said. .
New Jersey and Mississippi have built vaccines for smokers under the age of 65. However, several other states in the US have listed smokers in the next phase, according to an analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
New Jersey Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy on Thursday made 16-year-olds and seniors with medical conditions eligible for the vaccine. Murphy and New Jersey Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli said the state’s vaccination schedule is to get as many people vaccinated as quickly as possible, starting with those most at risk for serious illnesses due to the virus.
“We can not be too bureaucratic about this … Do not divide people in Job A against Job B,” the governor said.
The CDC recommended that smokers be vaccinated in phase 1c of the ride. However, the decision was left to the states to be considered for the various voters.
New Jersey, like other states, uses CDC guidelines to determine who is in which category. The 65-plus group and those with medical conditions, for example, are grouped together. What differs by country is when each group receives the vaccine. New Jersey started with health care workers and nursing home staff and residents, and then moved on to first responders such as police and firefighters.
Next came the elderly and those with medical conditions, but other states went in different directions. Teachers, for example, are eligible in many states as part of what the CDC calls the 1b population, including neighboring New York and Pennsylvania, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, but not yet in New Jersey.
However, government officials maintained that the decision was made taking into account ‘medical facts and not political shortcomings’. “We have to save lives. And we have to casually protect our hospitals from a patient,” Murphy said. Smoking is understood as a health risk, a state health council spokesman said he reiterated the governor’s thoughts.
Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves also announced that vaccines will now be available to people suffering from pre-existing medical conditions, as well as to smokers. However, state teachers, police officers and firefighters were promised in the next round to take vaccinations, he said.
New Jersey is home to about two million smokers, making up the largest population eligible for the vaccine, state Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli told a news conference. Whether smoking is a matter of public health or a personal choice is a debate that has arisen through the move to New Jersey. The state health department pointed out that nicotine is addictive in tobacco products and that people who smoke should quit.
While the addition of smokers to the list of people eligible to be vaccinated has attracted attention, there is a bigger problem: the lack of vaccine supply.
New Jersey, for example, currently receives about 100,000 doses per week. However, Persichilli needs about 470,000 a week to meet the expected demand.
That would be enough to vaccinate 70% of the adult population, or 4.7 million people, within about six months, which is the state’s goal.
Governor Phil Murphy put it this way: supply does not meet demand.
(With Reuters input)