One COVID-19 vaccine is already under review for possible emergency authorization in December; its competitors are close behind.
Once we have a vaccineor maybe severalit will be a while until there are enough doses for everybody.
The CDC is working on a plan to prioritize certain groups of people to get it first.
TheAdvisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, is a part of the CDC that makes vaccine recommendations.
One of the key decisions the committee will have to make: who should get the vaccine first?
ACIP estimates there are about 21 million Americans in this group.
By helping these workers first, were enabling them to stay healthy enough to treat others.
There are also practical reasons why it makes sense to vaccinate these workers first.
There are about three million people in this group.
These residents are often elderly and with high-risk medical conditions, and they bear the brunt of outbreaks.
According to the committees current thinking, these will be essential workers from industries other than healthcare.
There are about 87 million people in this group.
These populations are important because they have a high risk of complications and death.
Group 1b (overlapping with 1a): other essential workers.
Group 1c (overlapping with 1b): older adults and adults with high risk medical conditions.
Children arent in any of these groups, in part because they werent included in vaccine trials.
(Some companies enrolled teenagers in their trials; none are testing the vaccine on young children.)
Modernas vaccine may not be far behind, and the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine could be available not long after that.
All this depends on trial data and post-authorization studies confirming that the vaccine works and is safe.
