A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention panel of independent experts voted 13-1 on Tuesday that health-care workers and long-term care facility residents will be the first to receive the coronavirus vaccine.
“To date, more than 240,000 healthcare workers have contracted COVID-10 and 858 have died. According to estimates, deaths in long-term care facilities account for 40 percent of all COVID-19 deaths nationwide. These factors contributed to the committee’s recommendation to prevent spread by protecting those on the front lines, healthcare workers treating COVID-19 patients, and protect the most vulnerable, those elderly persons living in long-term care facilities,” the CDC said statement following the vote.
Earlier Tuesday, Trump vaccine chief Moncef Slaoui said the entire U.S. population of 331 million could be vaccinated against Covid-19 by June 2021. Slaoui believes that there could be enough doses to immunize the rest of the nearly 8 billion people in the world by early to mid-2022
The panel will meet again to decide who should be next in line for the show — with possibilities including teachers, police officers, firefighters, other essential workers and people with underlying health conditions.
