Currently, the vaccine to help prevent the coronavirus is right around the corner. This comes after two vaccines, Pfizer and Morena’s, are over 90% effective. The United Kingdom even granted use of it to emergencies that will begin this week. This comes right as America is nearing 300,000 cases nationwide and new daily cases high with the holiday season near. Secretary Alex Azar has claimed, “We could see the FDA authorization within days,” and that they are making sure it reaches the “gold-standard” processes. The real question after authorization though is who deserves the vaccine first?
The CDC has stated that no matter what, the elderly and healthcare workers will receive the first shots. We are put in a difficult situation of choosing between preventing deaths by helping the elderly, or preventing infections through essential workers. Who gets the shot after that is an even tricker decision. A committee of the CDC voted to put essential workers above those high risk above 65 in the second phase, which is labeled 1b. Many are afraid that minorities and lower income Americans, who have already been disportionately affected by the coronavirus, will be left behind once again. Many of these minorities and lower income are also a part of the 90 million people that are considered “essential workers.” This phrase is very broad, going across from the 3 million nurses to the 4 million fast food employees and many other professions. In Arkansas alone, 75% are essential workers and 56% are frontline workers. This also makes the nation have to choose between which professions are more important to protect than others. For example, some states are choosing to give educators the vaccine before retail/food processing workers while others are deciding the exact opposite.
These tough choices are ultimately up to the states and will shape the future of our country. Who would you choose, doctors or the elderly? Cashier or the teacher?
Thank you Brook for the interesting dilemma. I think it would be best to give the elderly the the vaccine first as in nearly all the cases in which Covid-19 has directly killed, they have been from the elderly. Preserving the population should be more important than short time inconvenience of a few weeks if you did get Covid-19. As far as the cashier or teacher, I would say teacher as learning is more effective in person than remotely versus purchasing in person than online.
ReplyDelete-Aaron B.
The predicament of who will get the vaccine first is a tough one, and I'm sure the decision will raise some conflict in the future. It's hard to choose who would get it first, especially considering lives are literally at stake. Obviously, the first people that come to mind to get the vaccine would be the elderly. However, there needs to be people available to give the vaccine, and that will be difficult if workers are out with COVID. There's also the problem of people suffering from health conditions, specifically respiratory. Many of the worst cases I've seen have been because the patient had severe health issues to begin with, and the symptoms escalated with the contraction of the coronavirus. To sum things up, many things will have to be taken into account when it comes to the decision of who will get the vaccine first, and hopefully the choice will lead to a positive outcome for the needs of the American people. -Kirstyn
ReplyDeleteI think that what most people are so up in arms about is whether or not they will get the vaccine. Just in the last few weeks, many airlines and big businesses are saying that if you don't receive the vaccine they won't let you enter their businesses or won't let you on those airlines without proper proof that you had the vaccine. I totally agree that healthcare workers should receive the first round of vaccines because they are the ones trying to help us.
ReplyDelete-Jameson