Healthcare workers and nursing home residents will be the first in the US to get Covid-19 vaccines, a high powered government panel announced late Tuesday.
Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) panel voted 13-1 to recommend these two groups get priority while doses are in short supply in the early weeks.
Together, that group would represent roughly 23 million Americans, disproportionately including women, people of color and low-wage workers who makeup the healthcare labor force.
Burden of disease figured prominently in the decision to bring nursing home residents into the ambit early. CDC experts noted that 40 percent of the deaths in the US have been among those in long term care facilities.
The Food and Drug Administration has not yet authorized emergency use of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. That decision is likely to be taken between December 10-17 . Both vaccines have shown more than 90 percent effectiveness in large scale studies.
Also Read: Covid-19 pandemic has worsened gender-based violence for women, says UN
The first shipments of Pfizer's vaccine are set to be delivered to states within two weeks, CNN reported today, quoting documents sourced from Operation Warp Speed - the Trump government's vaccine coordination program.
Between Pfizer and Moderna, a total of 40 million doses of the vaccine are expected to be available by the end of 2020.
The coronavirus has killed more than 270,000 Americans and sickened more than 13 million since it first entered the country early this year.
SOURCE: IANS