ATLANTA, GA. — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advisory committee on vaccines has now called an emergency meeting for Tuesday, Dec. 1.
In the meeting they will be voting on recommendations for who could be the very first groups of people to get the vaccine. Once a vaccine gets emergency authorization from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) draft recommendations suggest healthcare workers should be among the first. Also on the list are people most likely to catch, spread, and develop severe symptoms from the virus such as nursing home residents.
“They still will have to make a final decision on the particular vaccine that is authorized by the FDA,” said Rick Bright, member of Biden’s COVID-19 advisory board. “It might be December 12th or 13th before those first people are receiving a dose of the vaccine.”
The federal government has said 40 million coronavirus vaccine doses could be available by the end of December.
There are not going to be enough vaccines for everyone at first, so choices have to be made.
Those in nursing homes amount for about 40% of COVID-19 deaths in the United States. Experts have a range of concerns, including possible side of effects of the vaccine and that many nursing home residents can’t travel to a hospital or outpatient clinic.
Major pharmacy chains such as Walgreens are preparing to bring the vaccine to nursing homes, either by setting up a central location within the facility or going room-to-room.
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