U.S. advisory group lays out detailed recommendations on how to prioritize Covid-19 vaccine

U.S. advisory group lays out proposal on how to prioritize Covid-19 vaccine A new report that aims to prioritize groups to receive Covid-19 vaccine lays out detailed recommendations on who should be at the front of the line. Helen Branswell STAT

A new report that aims to prioritize groups to receive Covid-19 vaccine focuses on who is at risk, rather than using job categories or ethnic groups to determine who should be at the front of the line.

It was widely expected that health care workers would be the first priority grouping, and some — though not all — are. There were also many voices arguing for people of color to be given priority access, because the pandemic has exacted a disproportionately heavy toll on Black and Latinx people, both in terms of overall numbers of infections and deaths.

But in the end the panel of experts that wrote the priority setting framework for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine chose instead to focus on the factors that create the risk for some people of color — systemic racism that leads to higher levels of poor health and socioeconomic factors such as working in jobs that cannot be done from home or living in crowded settings. The report, a draft, was issued Tuesday.

“This virus has no sense of skin color. But it can exploit vulnerabilities,” said Bill Foege, a former director of the Centers for Disease Control, who is co-chair of the committee. The committee was set up by the National Academies at the request of Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, and Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Foege said he expects pushback. A virtual public meeting on the recommendations will be held Wednesday afternoon, and written comments can be submitted until Friday. The committee’s final report will be submitted later in September.

When Covid-19 vaccines are approved for use, initial supplies will be tight — potentially in the tens of millions of doses. Most of the vaccines under development will require two doses per person: a priming dose followed by a booster either three or four weeks later. ...