There are many coronavirus vaccines that are being developed by healthcare organizations around the world. Recently, vaccines have been administered to patients in the United States and United Kingdom. The pharmaceutical companies are deciding, based on science, when it is most appropriate to distribute the vaccines to various countries and to decide which part of the population should receive it first.
There is a current debate in the healthcare industry regarding how someone can acquire a vaccine. Will they be for sale at pharmacies, or will people have to get them at a doctor’s office or hospital setting. Many are assuming the Federal government will pay for the distribution of the vaccines, but they have not yet determined exactly how they plan to roll them out.
The state of California has already decided its first step. According to ABC News, the first batch of vaccines will make their way to California this week and will be given to health care workers and nursing home residents. The state does not yet know who they will deliver the vaccine to next.
The CDC has a working framework for distribution with three separate tiers: (Phase 1A) medical professionals who work with COVID-19 patients, elderly patients in long-term care and dialysis patients. Phase 1B includes home healthcare workers, public health staff, and correctional facility clinics. Phase 1C will be for doctors, laboratory scientist and pharmacist. Recipients In each phase will receive two doses. The CDC has recommended this as a working strategy but the agency will be monitoring the distribution and finding better ways to complete the task over time.
In California, the department of public health is making the decision on who will receive the vaccine first. While the state has the authority to make its own decisions regarding vaccine distribution for the other two phases, they must include some of the Federal recommendations.
This is a difficult, ethical decision that has a direct impact on millions of people’s healthcare. California has been working on this for the past few months. “The drafting guidelines workgroup will help us make difficult decisions and guidelines about vaccine allocation and distribution both early on when the resources are scarce, and later as supplies increase,” said Dr. Erica Pan in October, as the interim state public health officer.
“The process so far seems incredibly rigorous, thoughtful and impressive,” said Dr. Louise Aronson, professor at Stanford University School of Medicine.
“There have been inequities in this pandemic in who gets PPE and who gets testing,” Aronson stated. “That all happened very quickly without much planning and with, at least at the federal level, a government that didn’t want to take charge across the nation.” So far, she is confident in California’s ability to roll out the vaccines.
There is also politics at play. Some states and the CDC are recommending to give the vaccine to people in prison before distributing it to the general community. Many citizens are putting pressure on their Congressmen and Senators to reject any policy that would put criminals ahead of law-abiding citizens. Analyst are suggesting this will not be the case in California, but it is still an option on the table in other states.