priority for healthcare professionals and nursing homes for vaccination in the United States

These two populations represent approximately 24 million people in the United States, which is the approximate number of people who can be vaccinated in December if the two vaccines are evaluated by the Medicines Agency (FDA). , developed by Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna, were in fact licensed and produced in the promised quantities (40 million doses in all).

Each vaccine will be given in two doses spaced three or four weeks apart, respectively.

“I voted to maximize benefits, minimize risks, promote justice and mitigate existing health inequalities,” said commission president José Romero.

This recommendation, only for the very first phase called “1a”, will not be mandatory.

Donald Trump’s federal government will recommend an order of priority that will not necessarily be that of the CDC. But at the risk of creating confusion in the country, each of the 50 states and territories will ultimately define the list of priority groups in their own jurisdiction, although most should adhere to the recommendations of health authorities.

Sara Oliver of the CDC explained during the meeting on Tuesday that after December the authorities expected to receive between 5 and 10 million doses per week.

From an operational standpoint, most states believe they can vaccinate all of their healthcare professionals “in three weeks” or less, said Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC vaccination center.

Nursing homes concentrated 40% of the deaths from the pandemic in the United States, or about 100,000 deaths. They have three million residents.

For healthcare professionals, the population is estimated at 21 million people in hospitals, retirement homes and other nursing homes, clinics, pharmacies, emergency services …

The committee did not vote for the continuation of operations, but its experts proposed to then give priority to essential workers (education, food, law enforcement, firefighters, public transport … in a phase 1b), therefore adults with many risk factors and adults over 65 (phase 1c).

The rather high priority given to workers essential to economic recovery appears to be an American feature.

Only one member voted against after raising the issue of vaccine side effects on the elderly. Detailed data from phase 3 clinical trials have yet to be released, although manufacturers have indicated that no serious side effects have been linked to their vaccines.

Historically, nearly all side effects appear within six weeks of vaccination, and studies have accumulated two months of safety data.

But monitoring will continue after authorization: many existing and new pharmacovigilance systems will monitor, week by week, the appearance of serious side effects in vaccinated people, detailed CDC officials.