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Healthcare professionals and nursing home residents should be given priority for COVID-19 vaccination in the United States, an advisory committee recommended Tuesday.
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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 according to the authorities’ forecast, if the two vaccines are currently being evaluated by the agency. drugs (FDA), developed by Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna, were in fact authorized and produced in the promised quantities.
Experts from the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) expressed their long-awaited opinion after a public meeting followed by a vote.
“I voted to maximize the benefits, minimize the risks, promote justice and mitigate existing health disparities,” said the commission’s chair José Romero.
But this recommendation, which concerns the very first phase known as “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.
And at the risk of creating confusion in the country, it will ultimately be each of the 50 states and territories that will establish the list of priority groups in its jurisdiction, although most should adhere to recommendations from health authorities.
Three weeks
US officials had already said they would distribute 40 million doses in total by the end of the year. Each vaccine will be administered in two doses spaced three or four weeks apart depending on the laboratory.
So, from an operational standpoint, most states believe they will be able to vaccinate all of their healthcare professionals “in three weeks” or less, said Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s vaccination center.
Nursing homes accounted for 40% of pandemic deaths 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).
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.
Essential workers
The rather high priority given to workers essential to economic recovery appears to be an American feature.
The central tension of the debate is this: vaccination should both protect the most vulnerable and facilitate the rebirth of society.
Another group of American experts, convened by the National Academies of Sciences, proposed to rapidly vaccinate teachers and other “critical” workers, those who are the essential cogs for a return to normal and whose vaccination would have an effect. multiplier.
It is often the precarious workers, of the Hispanic and black minorities, who have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic.
In France, the Alta Autorité de la santé recommended starting with the residents and some at-risk employees of nursing homes, followed by the elderly and health personnel, then by the over 50s, then by people whose profession favors infections and people vulnerable and vulnerable, and finally the rest of the population.
Only one member of the committee voted against the recommendations adopted in the United States on Tuesday after raising the issue of vaccine side effects on the elderly.
Detailed data from phase 3 clinical trials, i.e. on thousands of volunteers, have not yet been published, although the 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.
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