A Blog by Jonathan Low

 

Dec 29, 2020

Against CDC Advice Florida and Texas Begin Covid Vaccination For People Over 65

The CDC recommended that frontline workers and people over 75 be vaccinated first. But that was medicine. This is politics. JL

Aylin Woodward reports in Business Insider:

These decisions go against guidelines set by the CDC (which) recommended that healthcare workers and nursing-home residents and staff members should be first in line, followed by other frontline workers and all people over 75. These recommendations, the group wrote, are meant to "preserve functioning of society" and "decrease death and serious disease as much as possible." The few places in Florida and Texas that started administering vaccinations to people older than 65 quickly exhausted supply. "People lined up more than two hours before the clinic opened, and doses ran out by 8:30 a.m."

Florida and Texas have started to distribute coronavirus vaccines to residents over age 65.

Last week, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida issued an executive order allocating vaccines to nursing-home residents and staff members, people 65 and older, medical workers, and anyone deemed "extremely vulnerable to COVID-19." Texas did the same a few days prior, giving the green light for people 65 and older, along with those who have certain preexisting conditions, to start getting vaccinated.

"The focus on people who are age 65 and older or who have comorbidities will protect the most vulnerable populations," Imelda Garcia, the chair of Texas' expert vaccine-allocation panel, said in a statement.

These decisions go against guidelines set by an advisory group at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC recommended that healthcare workers and nursing-home residents and staff members should be first in line, followed by other frontline workers and all people over 75. These recommendations, the group wrote, are meant to "preserve functioning of society" and "decrease death and serious disease as much as possible."

But in Florida and Texas, younger frontline workers have been bumped out of the next phase of vaccinations.

"The problem is people that are 73, 74 would be in the back of the line for a young 21-year-old worker who's considered 'essential.' That doesn't, I think, make sense,'' DeSantis said at a press conference on Wednesday.

Neither state has finished vaccinating everyone in the first priority group.

Literal vaccine lines have formed

The few places in Florida and Texas that started administering vaccinations to people older than 65 quickly exhausted supply.

Coronavirus vaccine US
The CEO of the New Jewish Home long-term-care facility in New York receiving a COVID-19 vaccine on December 21. 
BRYAN R. SMITH/AFP via Getty Images

The Department of Health in Lee County, which includes Fort Myers, started vaccinating people ages 65 and older on Monday. County staff members reported that they expected to have 300 doses available at one site on Monday, three sites on Tuesday, and three sites on Wednesday.

Photos from the local outlet The News-Press showed Fort Myers residents lined up at the Estero Park and Recreation Center on Sunday evening, 19 hours before the clinic site was set to open.

By the next morning, the line stretched around the building. The clinic ran out of doses by noon.

Similarly, the Wise Health System in Decatur, Texas, began giving shots to residents in the 65-plus age group on a first-come, first-served basis on Wednesday. People lined up more than two hours before the clinic opened, and doses ran out by 8:30 a.m.

"We know that the 65+ clinic did not go as smoothly as we would have liked," the Wise Health System wrote on its Facebook page on Wednesday. "The decision was made to provide the vaccine to this critical age group on Tuesday morning and it was implemented in less than 24 hours."



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