Is your medical condition in California’s vaccine line?

With damaged airways, Kai Levenson-Cupp (19) lives in fear that COVID-19 may aggravate the asthma that makes him gasp for breath.

Brooke Vittimberga (25) has a weakened immune system due to complications of a bone marrow transplant, and is therefore also very vulnerable to the virus.

But none of these serious health issues are likely to bring it to the forefront of the COVID-19 vaccine line, despite the state’s newly expanded eligibility criteria that could allow millions of California residents to be vaccinated from March 15. word. they have the wrong diagnoses.

“I’m scared to death,” said Levenson-Cupp of Alameda, whose lungs and trachea burned badly during a childhood accident and now uses an inhaler to breathe during exercise, allergies and even the most routine viral ailments.

With the rare vaccination of doses, California on Friday unveiled a list of high-risk conditions and disabilities that are eligible for the following vaccination phase: cancer, pregnancy, stage 4 kidney disease, oxygen-dependent lung disease, Down syndrome, sickle cell disease, heart failure, severe diabetes, type 2 diabetes and a weakened immune system due to a solid organ transplant.

The list of ten conditions is narrow and is designed to meet the demand of everyone with a minor illness. Healthcare providers need to verify a person’s health status. This next phase will add another 4 to 6 million people to the current list of 13 million Californians eligible for vaccine.

However, a range of other serious medical conditions – such as cystic fibrosis, dementia, hypertension, type 1 diabetes and some rare genetic diseases – were not included, although there is early evidence that it is associated with worse outcomes in COVID. -19 patients. .

According to critics, millions of California residents are in danger with rare conditions because the state is trying to balance the needs of those most vulnerable to the pandemic. Californians 65 years and older, first-line and first-respond health workers, and some teachers and farm workers qualify for the vaccine. But Friday’s announcement of the next phase will surely put many residents at risk of waiting their turn.

Vittimberga is one of them. The Stanford graduate who dreams of going to medical school is a survivor of acute myeloid leukemia who developed graft versus host disease, a rare condition when a transplanted immune system attacks the body after a bone marrow transplant.

If she contracted COVID-19, her chances were slim: 32% mortality rate, according to one recent study. But the state will not prioritize those whose immune systems are weakened by solid organ transplants – at least not yet – bone marrow transplants.

“My concern is that I will be excluded, even though I have a very high risk,” says Vittimberga, who wears two masks and goggles to prevent COVID-19 during her regular hospital visits.

According to the state, the list of conditions could change as additional scientific and state-specific evidence is analyzed by the California Department of Public Health.

The state made its recommendations from a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention document created in December, as a source for people who may need to take extra precautions to prevent them from contracting the virus.

The CDC list is also used as a distribution tool for other states, including Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, New Jersey, North Dakota, Texas, Washington, and New York.

States are free to draw up their own priority lists for vaccines, which is causing a great deal of controversy.

In New Jersey, smokers are on the list. Washington, DC, offers the vaccine to anyone with a body mass index of more than 25, a degree of obesity; in California, the decline is 40. Unlike California, Tennessee will offer the vaccine to people with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes.

One problem is that the CDC list is based on research from large numbers of COVID-19 patients or sets of smaller studies. To make the list, a condition must be common enough that many people have it – and have been infected by the virus.

This means that people with more rare conditions – such as spinal muscular atrophy, lupus, multiple sclerosis, Crohn’s disease or ankylosing spondylitis – are not included.

The CDC guidelines were never intended to inform the distribution of vaccines, and ‘may not include all conditions that could develop one’s risk for COVID-19,’ the agency said.

The lack of data does not mean a lack of risk, said Britt Dorton, 24, whose diagnoses of Ehlers-Danlos, a connective tissue disorder and other conditions, can rush her to the hospital with a dislocated joint or sudden change. a heartbeat.

In some cases, fear of COVID-19 has reduced patients’ network of friends and family who help support them. Those who live on disability checks, in crowded housing, have the opposite problem – they cannot isolate.