Indiana state health officials are allowing smokers on the COVID-19 vaccine waiting lists instead of teachers, angering school staff.
“According [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention], smokers and people suffering from severe obesity are at increased risk of serious illness or death and therefore can be considered for the waiting list, “said a spokesman for the Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH) in an e -mail to WISH-TV in response to the movement. “We followed the CDC’s recommendations.”
Each Indiana county will be responsible for deciding whether or not to allow smokers on vaccine waiting lists – and the change does not mean that if someone is a smoker, they can simply schedule a vaccine appointment online. The state is still administering its doses only to age groups, health professionals and first responders.
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But the change in state affects who can apply to vaccine waiting lists to receive the remaining doses – and Indiana has tightened control over vaccine waiting lists throughout the month. In a January 30 letter to vaccination sites, Indiana’s medical director, Dr. Lindsay Weaver, ordered vaccination sites to cancel and notify anyone who was incorrectly informed that they qualified and were placed on a waiting list.
This impacted several teachers in Indiana, who were signing up on waiting lists to receive unused vaccines and prevent waste, WFYI reported. Because teachers are not officially eligible for vaccines in Indiana, several teachers have recently been removed from waiting lists. ISDH said these teachers were downgraded because their professional category is not officially considered a priority group in the state, so they cannot receive vaccines. Only teachers over 60 would be qualified.
Now that smokers have been given priority status ahead of them on waiting lists, teachers are even more concerned, especially as schools seek to reopen as soon as possible.
“We find it extremely frustrating that the Indiana State Department of Health continues to choose the CDC recommendations when it clearly states that educators should be vaccinated now,” Jennifer Smith-Margraf, vice president of the Indiana State Teachers Association told WISH-TV.
As of its February 19 guidelines, the CDC classifies teachers, support staff and childcare as “essential frontline workers”. Indiana hasn’t done the same yet.
ISDH also denied a statement that it wasted vaccines by removing teachers from waiting lists: “We ask each clinic to maintain a waiting list of people who meet current eligibility requirements so that each dose can be administered, and only one 100th of the doses we received were wasted, mainly due to the breaking of a vial or syringe. “
The scientific community agreed with evidence that shows that smokers are a priority group for protection against COVID-19. Habitual smoking is associated with a high chance of hospitalization and death from COVID-19, according to a Cleveland Clinic study published in January in JAMA Internal Medicine Daily. Another study published in November by the University of California, Los Angeles, found that COVID-19 worsens the airways of smokers. Other researchers have found that smoking can weaken the body’s immune response and increase the risk that a patient will need a lung transplant if he is seriously ill, USA today reported.
Newsweek contacted ISDH to comment on its updated vaccine waiting lists.