Mainers 60 and older eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine next week, as the state changes to age-based implementation

Governor Janet Mills said on Friday that Maine will base eligibility for the COVID-19 vaccination at a later age, replacing an earlier system that prioritized vaccines for individuals with high-risk medical conditions or who worked in first-rate jobs.

Under the new plan, all Maine residents aged 60 to 69 will be eligible for vaccination starting on Wednesday. The decision grants access to vaccines for an additional 200,000 Maine residents, even though the state continues to vaccinate the estimated 193,000 individuals aged 70 and over who are currently eligible.

Looking ahead, Maine hopes to make vaccines available to people aged 50 and over in April, for those in their 40s in May and for those in their 30s in June. Individuals under the age of 30, including children if a vaccine is authorized for them, will be targeted starting in July, according to the deadline set on Friday.

Mills and Dr. Nirav Shah, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said the controversial decision to adopt an age-based system stems from scientific research showing that age is among the strongest indicators of serious illness or death by COVID-19. More than 85 percent of COVID deaths in Maine occurred among people aged 70 and over, and 98 percent were over 50.

“Given that Maine has the oldest population … this approach, which is different from the approach in other states, will benefit most people in Maine the fastest,” said Mills during a virtual news conference. “I’m trying to save lives here, trying to get guns shot as quickly as possible. After consulting science and weighing the many considerations, I believe that, in general, this approach is the right one for our state. “

More than 16 percent of Maine’s population – or 217,667 people – received at least one dose of the vaccine, and 8.2 percent received both doses and needed to be fully inoculated against COVID-19 on Friday morning.

Mills said the goal is “to do the greatest good for the greatest number of people in the shortest possible time.” The governor predicted that an age-based system will increase efficiency, eliminating logistical nightmares about confirming someone’s eligibility due to medical conditions or their work, while providing additional predictability during the pandemic.

But the decision is sure to upset many Maine residents who work in high-risk, “frontline” high-profile jobs – such as teachers, grocery workers or restaurant workers – as well as hundreds of thousands of residents with underlying medical conditions. Although state officials have announced plans for vaccination clinics dedicated exclusively to teachers, their eligibility to receive an injection will be based on age.

Shah acknowledged that not everyone will be satisfied with the change.

“We are responsible for public health decisions, not so much for individual patient decisions,” he said. “On an individual level, we recognize that this approach can leave some people waiting for more. But at the population level, keeping in mind our goal of reducing the number of people in Maine who are dying of COVID, this is the strategy we believe will get us there more quickly and, we think, in the most equitable way. “

MAINE NOT ALONE

Maine joins a small but growing number of states or countries using age as the sole or main criterion for vaccine eligibility.

This week, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont said his state will continue to use an age-based approach, although Connecticut has also pushed all teachers, school staff and child care workers to the front of the vaccination queue. Nebraska has also ceased to give higher priority to people with high-risk medical conditions and will instead focus primarily on age.

And on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, UK officials announced on Friday that the next phase of vaccinations in that country will be based on age, not profession. As in Maine, authorities in the UK said that the age-based approach will be simpler and faster.

In doing so, Maine and other states are moving away from official recommendations by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, the federal government gives states wide freedom of action in implementing vaccination campaigns, and even this federal orientation has evolved in recent weeks in response to the latest science and the pace of vaccine production.

Jennifer Tolbert, director of state health reform at the Kaiser Family Foundation, hopes that other states will also adopt age-based vaccination strategies.

“Not all states have the oldest population that Maine has, but I think what is attractive about this age-based prioritization is that it is simple,” said Tolbert on Friday afternoon. “It is an easy message to convey. You can work through groups. “

That said, Tolbert said there are strong arguments to be made that people with high-risk medical conditions should also be given priority. Although Rhode Island has adopted a system based primarily on age, it is also expanding eligibility for younger individuals with five specific health problems: diabetes, heart disease, lung disease, kidney disease, or a compromised immune system.

“We are still in a situation where we have a limited supply of the vaccine and there are many more people who need the vaccine than can get it,” said Tolbert. “So there are tradeoffs. Governors and other state officials are having to make decisions about these compensations … and there are no good answers. “

OPEN APPOINTMENTS GATES

An hour after Mills’ announcement, some healthcare providers began scheduling appointments next week for people aged 60 to 69. Maine’s two largest healthcare chains that have applied many of the vaccines so far, MaineHealth and Northern Light Health, have welcomed the change.

Mainers who found themselves suddenly – and unexpectedly – on the verge of eligibility for the vaccine also praised the change.

Brenda Buchanan, a 63-year-old Portland lawyer, hoped the next phase would apply to those over 65. Although pleased that this would have benefited his 65-year-old spouse, Buchanan was concerned that he was on a different vaccination schedule than his wife.

So when she learned on Friday that she would also be eligible and received an email from her healthcare professional about scheduling appointments, Buchanan saw this as a step towards giving the couple more freedom to go back to the world together, even that they keep wearing masks and ordering takeaway food.

“We’ve been doing this for almost a year,” said Buchanan. “We were able to keep ourselves safe. Let’s be patient. But on the other hand, you really want to start feeling like, ‘OK, I am part of those who are moving towards some kind of normal life again.’ I also have family members that I would like to see, and we have not done so for obvious reasons ”.

George Parr of Portland, a 69-year-old manager at seafood wholesaler Upstream Trucking, said he is happy to be next in line for a vaccination. A cancer survivor, Parr said his company has been careful with precautions during the pandemic “because if someone gets sick in Upstream, we will be out of business. I mean, my entire factory would close. “

He said it makes sense to vaccinate by age because older people are more likely to suffer serious consequences if they contract the virus. Although he knows people in their 30s who contracted the virus who became “very sick”, the disease was not strong enough to kill them.

“But you get older and you’re not (in your) fighting weight,” said Parr.

178 NEW CASES

The Mills administration announced the change in strategy on a day when the Maine CDC reported 178 new cases of COVID-19. Although there were no additional deaths reported on Friday, the Maine CDC reported 41 additional deaths on Wednesday and Thursday that were identified during periodic reviews of vital records dated January 26.

Although the number of new infections reported varies daily, the overall rate has tended to decline in recent weeks. The seven-day continuous average of new cases stood at 155 on Friday, slightly above the daily average of 140 cases for the week ending February 18, but below 207 for the week ending February 11. Maine’s seven-day continuous average peaked at 625 on Jan. 15 amid a post-holiday increase.

The Maine CDC has tracked 44,295 confirmed or probable cases of COVID-19 since the coronavirus was first detected in the state last March. A total of 701 people died in Maine after contracting COVID-19. Maine has consistently had one of the lowest infection and mortality rates in the country.

The number of people hospitalized in Maine on Friday with COVID-19 was 68, including 23 in intensive care and nine in ventilators. This represents less than a third of the state’s 207 peak hospitalizations on January 13.

Vaccine shipments to Maine’s CDC are expected to increase by more than 8 percent next week, to a total of 30,080. In addition, Walmart, Sam’s Club and Walgreens in Maine pharmacies are expected to receive 8,980 doses.

In addition, a panel of external consultants from the Food and Drug Administration on Friday recommended approval of a third vaccine, developed by Johnson & Johnson, paving the way for the FDA to issue an emergency use authorization as early as Saturday. This would open the door for additional doses for Maine and other states next week.

Maine’s older demographic data, combined with the fact that federal vaccine shipments are based on the general population of states, means that it will likely take longer for the state to vaccinate older residents. According to the latest data from Maine’s CDC, approximately 74,000 of the state’s 193,000 residents aged 70 and over have not yet received their first dose of the vaccine on Friday morning, although that number has dropped by thousands daily.

In the meantime, two more high-volume vaccination clinics are expected to open in southern Maine next week – one at Portland Expo, run by Northern Light Health, and another in Sanford, run by MaineHealth. They will complement the mass vaccination sites currently operating on Scarborough Downs’ old harness race track and Cross Insurance Center in Bangor.

Team editor Meredith Goad contributed to this report.

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