It’s still unknown when a COVID-19 vaccine might be available in the United States. But when one is first approved, there may only be 10 million to 15 million doses available, which may be enough to cover around 3% to 5% of the U.S. population. That’s according to estimates from Operation Warp Speed, the government’s vaccine project, published in a draft framework from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.
There are many who would benefit from the protection a safe and effective vaccine would afford; policymakers must decide who gets the vaccine first.
A vaccine advisory group to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is meeting Tuesday to consider how to prioritize distribution of a future COVID-19 vaccine. But a vote on who will get a vaccine first, originally planned for Tuesday, has been delayed.
Priority groups include “those who have the highest risk of exposure, those who are at risk for severe morbidity and mortality … [and also] the workforce that’s needed for us to maintain our both health and economic status,” said Dr. Grace Lee, a pediatrics professor at Stanford Children’s Hospital and a member of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices or ACIP. Lee spoke for herself, not the committee.
Read more at NPR.
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Perhaps the policymakers should get the vaccine first, and then we can see how safe they are.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/01/health/eua-coronavirus-vaccine-history/index.html
Past vaccine disasters show why rushing a coronavirus vaccine now would be ‘colossally stupid’
EXCERPTS: (CNN)Vaccine experts are warning the federal government against rushing out a coronavirus vaccine before testing has shown it’s both safe and effective. Decades of history show why they’re right.
On April 12, 1955 the government announced the first vaccine to protect kids against polio. Within days, labs had made thousands of lots of the vaccine. Batches made by one company, Cutter Labs, accidentally contained live polio virus and it caused an outbreak.
More than 200,000 children got the polio vaccine, but within days the government had to abandon the program.
“Forty thousand kids got polio. Some had low levels, a couple hundred were left with paralysis, and about 10 died,” said Dr. Howard Markel, a pediatrician, distinguished professor, and director of the Center for the History of Medicine at the University of Michigan. The government suspended the vaccination program until it could determine what went wrong.
Not to worry, I’m assuming about 80% of the population wouldn’t be bothered to get a Covid vaccine.
Am I wrong?
Who Would Get Them First? The CDC, the WHO and the Health Departments staff members globally. The public should wait at least 10 years to see whether any of them are still alive.