Priorities

Priorities

Republican Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan declared that nursing home residents and staff members will receive the vaccine first. The Baltimore Sun reported Hogan spoke at the headquarters for vaccine developer Novavax Inc. Of course, the safety group has yet to vote on who gets priority. However, it makes sense to prioritize the most vulnerable citizens.

The CDC advisory group did suggest during an August presentation that healthcare personnel, essential workers, people with high risk medical conditions, and adults 65 and older should receive early vaccination.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices said it’s now waiting for more data on the matter before it formally makes a decision and is next scheduled to meet in late October.

We should give top priority to people who attend and work at senior day care centers, other healthcare employees, public safety officials, educators and essential workers. These top priority candidates are at the most risk of contracting the disease.

Political Interference

The Trump administration’s bungled response to the coronavirus pandemic continues. Now Trump is interfering with vaccine safety. Trump “may or may not” sign off on a stricter F.D.A. plan to have outside experts weigh in before it approves a vaccine.

“That has to be approved by the White House. We may or may not approve it. That sounds like a political move.” Trump said about a draft FDA plan to apply safety and efficacy requirements for approval of a COVID-19 vaccine.

The pronouncement again undercut scientists. The FDA standards cleared a safety review by the Department of Health and Human Services. But Trump said he had “tremendous trust in these massive companies” and proposed that they should determine when a vaccine should be made available to the American people.

“When you have great companies coming up with these vaccines, why would they [the FDA] have to be, you know, adding great length to the process? We want to have people not get sick.” “I don’t see why it should be delayed further,” he said. “That is a lot of lives you’re talking about.” 

Now he is worried about lives lost?