Daily US Times: President-elect Joe Biden will leave the decision about who will be prioritized getting coronavirus vaccine first up to scientists and public health experts, a member of Joe Biden’s COVID-19 advisory board, told CNN on Friday.
Dr. Celine Gounder, a member of Joe Biden’s COVID-19 advisory board said this will come when a limited supply of vaccine is available.
Gounder told: “That’s where it gets a bit more political and, frankly, this is where the President-elect is leaving it to the public health experts and scientists to figure out how best to allocate the limited supply first.”
Last week, BioNTech and Pfizer filed for emergency authorization of their Covid-19 vaccine with the Food and Drug Administration. Pfizer announced that its Covid vaccine had a 95% efficacy rate in its final-stage clinical trials.
Pfizer has applied for emergency authorization and another major pharmaceutical Moderna, which also reported a 95% efficacy rate for its vaccine, is expected to do the same by the end of the month.
Once a vaccine is authorized, according to the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), it will go through the information on the vaccine and vote on whether to “recommend the vaccine and, if so, who should receive it.”
According to the ACIP, healthcare personnel, senior citizens, essential workers and people at high-risk are the four groups the committee is “possibly” recommending to get the vaccine early if supply is limited.
Public health experts have suggested a variety of frameworks as to who should get the coronavirus vaccine first.
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