WMC asks DHS to reconsider
MADISON, Wisconsin – The launch of the COVID-19 vaccine has left some industry workers in the state feeling left out.
On Monday, about two million people in Wisconsin with high-risk medical conditions became eligible for the vaccine as part of Phase 1C.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations put manufacturing workers in Phase 1B, but the State Medical and Disaster Advisory Committee did not include the group of around 500,000 of those workers in Phase 1B in the state when deliberating at the start of the launch. vaccine this winter – a time when vaccine supply was much more limited.
“We asked them, and they agreed that they shouldn’t put such a large group that we wouldn’t be able to vaccinate them for months and months,” said Julie Willems Van Dijk, undersecretary for the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.
The CDC also recommended placing “essential workers not included in Phase 1B” in Phase 1C, so Nick Novak of Wisconsin Manufactures & Commerce said the state’s association of manufacturers is discouraged that this is not the case.
“We are incredibly disappointed,” said Novak. “Manufacturers have to be part of the equation.”
WMC is asking DHS to reconsider.
“They worked every day to produce PPE, hand sanitizer and test kits,” said Novak. “They were part of the response to COVID-19 and were considered essential, but now, when it comes to getting the vaccine, Governor Evers and DHS said they are not essential. They simply will not be prioritized. “
At a news conference on Thursday, Willems Van Dijk said that, with regard to supplies now, they have moved on to Phase 1C knowing that the vaccine would be available to the general population “very soon” on May 1.
Phase 1C covers only those with high-risk medical conditions. The CDC also recommended to include essential workers, such as those working in transport and logistics, food service, housing construction and finance, information technology, communications, energy, law, media, public safety and public health.
Certain workers in some of these categories are already eligible in Wisconsin. Public health workers who provide vaccines and COVID-19 tests are included in Phase 1A in Wisconsin. Some transport workers, such as bus drivers, are included in Phase 1B eligibility, as well as food service workers, such as restaurant workers, but DHS is not including any additional groups of essential workers in Phase 1C.
“We feel that continuing to create eligibility by occupational group is confusing for everyone,” said Willems Van Dijk. “We are going to get there very soon and many, many of these employees are now eligible due to chronic health conditions.”
This does not include everyone at Teel Plastics in Baraboo, where workers keep essential products off the line.
“We’ve had people in the factory working, especially making COVID test swabs literally every day, 24 hours a day, since March 5 of last year,” said Christian Herrild, director of growth strategies at Teel Plastics. “This is absolutely necessary.”
Herrild said it was “a little surprising” to know that Teel workers as a whole will not be eligible for the vaccine until the rest of the public.
“We are nowhere on the list,” he said. “Especially with part of the work we are doing, it would, I think, be very impactful.”
Despite taking “the best precautions we can,” said Herrild, “it is not the same level of safety as being able to vaccinate everyone.”
That would make a big difference, he said, for workers who enter the building every day.
“They are getting into work because they think it is important,” said Herrild. “It would help many of our workers, who are very concerned about this, to feel better and safer to work.”
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