Should Someone With Asthma Get a COVID-19 Vaccine Before Someone With Cancer? The Next Big Challenge in the Vaccine Rollout
In an ideal world, there would be enough vaccines to inoculate everyone who wanted to get immunized against COVID-19. People would get their shots on a first come, first serve basis, we’d achieve herd immunity in a matter of months and COVID-19 would become a soon-distant memory.
But with some 240 million people over age 16 who need a COVID-19 vaccine (and two doses at that), and just over 42 million administered by early February, supply is far below demand, and will likely remain that way for months to come, despite vaccine makers pushing production lines as hard as they can.
As the U.S. works through the vaccine priority groups and begins to shift into ever larger populations in coming months, the pace of doses shipped could continue to outstrip the pace of administration. So far, the shots have been reserved primarily for health care workers, people living in long term care facilities, and those over 65. Some states have begun vaccinating essential workers like law enforcement officers, teachers and those who work in mass transit. But still, all of these groups are relatively easy to reach and vaccinate since they’re all well-defined.
The next big priority group, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) includes people with underlying health conditions that make them more vulnerable to COVID-19. While many are connected to the health care system by virtue of their medical conditions, there are a substantial portion of these patients who aren’t...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Alice Park Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 Source Type: news
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