SDMAC will review the vaccine subcommittee’s recommendations
MADISON, Wisconsin – Demand for the COVID-19 vaccine exceeds supply, but a state committee of experts is approaching to decide who they say should be eligible for vaccines next.
The State has already decided that police officers, firefighters and people aged 65 and over should be part of the next phase of distribution, Tier 1B, as vaccinations by health professionals and residents and long-term workers remain as part of 1A.
The State Medical and Disaster Advisory Committee is making recommendations to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services that other groups should be included in 1B.
Last week, the committee opened a set of recommendations for public comment, receiving nearly 5,000. An SDMAC vaccine subcommittee met on Wednesday morning to discuss this.
“This is an incredible flow of interest and participation,” said Dr. Jonathan Temte, co-chair of the subcommittee.
As the state recently announced the vaccine’s eligibility for people aged 65 and over, the committee members focused on other groups, such as whom they would consider to be Level 1B qualified public-facing essential workers.
Almost 1,800 public comments supported it, including food and grocery workers, who previously were not part of SDMAC’s recommendations for Phase 1B.
“We agree that these are essential workers for maintaining the role of society,” said Dr. Edward Belongia, a member of the subcommittee, during the meeting.
They chose to include food, food production, hunger and agriculture workers in the recommendations they will send to the full committee, along with education and daycare workers, who also received “overwhelming support,” according to comment documents. public.
The subcommittee chose to include public transport workers in 1B, too, which would mean bus drivers, but not taxi drivers, hitchhikers or airline service workers, although a minority supported their inclusion as well.
Utility workers and 911 operators were also included in the subcommittee’s recommendations. They continued to support the state’s approximately 300 mink farmers, citing biosafety risks due to the transmission of the virus between humans and mink, and for people living in congregated environments.
This includes inmates, although more than 70 public comments analyzed showed opposition, “some quite vehement”. The subcommittee also chose to include people who are incarcerated, noting their right to health care and the risk of spreading COVID.
Some people called for the inclusion of veterinarians and librarians, who did not get the support of the majority of the subcommittee. Although there were more than 500 comments in support of including people with risk factors and medical conditions in 1B, the majority in the subcommittee felt that the group was too large to justify postponing vaccination for other groups. Belongia expressed its opposition.
“Each case presented is convincing, so I cannot disagree with any group here. It bothers me that some of the people at high risk of dying from COVID-19 are not included in this group. For me, this is a very important consideration, ”said Belongia. “We are protecting many essential workers and they deserve to be protected, but we are not protecting people with cancer, we are not protecting people with heart disease, kidney disease, etc.”
Subcommittee members included Family Care and IRIS beneficiaries in 1B.
“One challenge that we faced and that the committee faced is that each group that they examined … has valid reasons for being on the list to receive vaccines before the general public,” said DHS Deputy Secretary Julie Willems Van Dijk. “We don’t have enough vaccine to meet the needs of all these people.”
The SDMAC meets on Thursday to review the latest recommendations from the vaccine subcommittee, and then the state has the final say.
“We will analyze this list very carefully and we will analyze the analysis by group and make a determination,” said Willems Van Dijk. “So, we will need to think carefully about when we will add additional groups to that group of people eligible for the vaccine.”
If the recommendations of the subcommittee remain, Phase 1B and the current Phase 1A would represent about 45% of the state’s adult population.
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