There is a long(!) thread on vaccines, but I did not see one on this facet.
The
ACIP (Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices) studies the vaccine issues, and makes a recommendation, that the
CDC then publishes as its recommendation. Like the recent change on the Pneumonia Vaccines.
In the last day or so, have seen different articles basically saying the same thing. That the going idea being mulled over is 4 groups:
Health care workers: Vaccinating roughly 20 million US doctors, nurses, lab technicians and other health care providers helps protect both the country's front-line COVID-19 responders and the patients they care for.
Essential workers: Approximately 87 million US workers provide the basic goods and services we need to survive. Most can't work from home and many jobs require interacting with the public, so guarding against COVID-19 among this population would have a ripple effect across the whole country while also reducing critical service interruptions.
People with underlying medical conditions: Specifically, the 100 million or so people with conditions putting them at high risk for illness or death from COVID-19. Any disease affecting the lungs, but also anything that could compromise a person's immune system, like cancer or HIV.
Older adults: Risk of severe complications from COVID-19 increases with age. The CDC's ACIP recommends the approximately 53 million US adults age 65 and over be among the first to get vaccinated.
I copied this list from
https://www.cnet.com/how-to/covid-1...be-last-in-line-heres-who-will-get-one-first/ just to save me typing it. The same list with the same numbers appears on many different websites, including ones with more medical pedigree. But it is prioritized from top to bottom. Adding 20 + 87 + 100 + 53 million = 260 million. Which with a US population of 330 million, leaves the remainder, 70 million, in a last and unnamed group.
I realize that not everyone can be Priority 1 (aww), but if us 65 and older folks are down in the fourth group, maybe it would be wise to send us coffin kits via UPS.
Once people start being vaccinated, I expect the whole mask-wearing, distancing, rules on capacity and what is open etc. to be ignored and all fall apart. And there for quite awhile will be us un-vaccinated older folks with no idea who had the vaccination regimen, did they actually have both shots or did they skip the second shot just like not taking antibiotics anymore 'cuz "I feel better now", or are they un-vaccinated? We won't know, how would we tell? And we supposedly, and the stats in our big-city newspaper bears it out county by county, are more susceptible to death from it.
Now personally, I'm OK with dying if it isn't drawn-out. But Covid-19 is not on my list of ways to prepare me to be sent across the river Styx. Now if I was lying in ICU, and there was a shortage of ventilators and I was about to be intubated, I might well wave it off and tell them leave me, give it to someone younger. But that would be MY choice.
When the ACIP votes soon, if this indeed is the priority order they end up recommending, then maybe it will also be the solution to the ~2035 SSA problem.
Here, take the flowers Bud!
Oh, and thanks for helping on the SSA solution!