WMC asks DHS to reconsider
MADISON, Wis. – The deployment of the COVID-19 vaccine is keeping some manufacturers away from the state.
On Monday, an estimated two million people in Wisconsin with high-risk medical conditions are eligible for the vaccine as part of Phase 1C.
The recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention put manufacturers in phase 1B, but the State Disaster and Medical Advisory Committee did not include the group of about 500,000 such workers in Phase 1B in the state when they were vaccinated early in the vaccine. did not consult this winter – a time when the supply of vaccines was very limited.
“We asked them, and they agreed that they should not place a group so large that we would not be able to vaccinate them for months and months,” said Julie Willems Van Dijk, deputy secretary of the health services department. in Wisconsin, said. .
The CDC also recommended placing “essential workers not included in Phase 1B” in Phase 1C, so Nick Novak of Wisconsin Manufactures & Commerce said the State Manufacturers Association is discouraged that this will not be the case. .
“We’re just incredibly disappointed,” Novak said. “Manufacturers must be part of the equation.”
WMC asks that DHS reconsider.
“They went to work every day to make PPE, make hand cleaners, make test kits,” Novak said. ‘They were part of the response to COVID-19 and they are considered essential, but now, when it comes to vaccination, Governor Evers and DHS have said it is not essential. They are simply not going to be prioritized. ”
At a media conference on Thursday, Willems Van Dijk said that with where the supply is now, they have moved to phase 1C, knowing that the vaccine would be available to the general population “very soon” by 1 May.
Phase 1C includes only those with high risk medical conditions. The CDC also recommends that essential workers such as those working in transportation and logistics, food services, housing construction and finance, information technology, communications, energy, legislation, media, public safety and public health be included.
Certain workers in some of these categories are already eligible in Wisconsin. Public health workers who provide vaccines and COVID-19 testing are included in Phase 1A in Wisconsin. Some transport workers, such as bus drivers, are included under the Phase 1B qualification, as well as food service workers such as restaurant workers, but DHS does not include additional essential worker groups in Phase 1C.
“We just feel that it is confusing for everyone to continue to be eligible by a professional group,” said Willems Van Dijk. “We are going to get there soon, and many, many of the employees are now eligible due to chronic health conditions.”
This does not include everyone at Teel Plastics in Baraboo, where workers like essential products from the line.
“We have employed people in the factory, especially to make COVID test pads literally every day 24 hours a day since March 5 last year,” said Christian Herrild, director of growth strategies at Teel Plastics. “It’s absolutely essential.”
Herrild said it was ” a bit surprising ” to learn that Teel’s workers were not eligible for the vaccine at all to the rest of the public.
“We are nowhere on the list,” he said. “Especially with some of the work we do, I think it’s going to be really striking.”
Despite the best precautions we can take, Herrild said, “it just’s not the same safety as getting everyone vaccinated.”
This would make a huge difference to the workers who enter the building every day.
“They start working because they feel it’s important,” Herrild said. “It will help many of our workers who are very worried about it to feel better and safer about their jobs.”
COPYRIGHT 2021 THROUGH CHANNEL 3000. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCASTED, REWRITTEN OR DISTRIBUTED.