SAN DIEGO — We don’t know exactly when the Coronavirus vaccine will get approval from the FDA to be officially rolled out to Americans, but we know not everyone will be able to take it as soon as it’s on the market.
So who decides who get the vaccine first?
According to Moncef Slaoui, the man in charge of Operation Warp Speed, each state will be given vaccine doses from the federal government based on population. From there, it’s up to the states to decide what to do with them.
“There are two different categories that we want to vaccinate,” said Yaneer Bar-Yam, the President of the New England Complex Systems Institute and an expert on pandemics. “The first are the people who are the most at risk to get infected and the second are the people who are the most at risk for severe consequences of being infected.”
He says there’s a general consensus that healthcare workers and the elderly should be the first in line to get the vaccine, but after that, it’s up in the air.
“There’s going to be questions about whether children get vaccinated first. And then adults who are not otherwise at risk will be the last in line to get the vaccine,” he said.
Bar-Yam says it would be optimistic for the general public to get their hands on a vaccine in under six months due to supply chain issues and the possibility that the virus mutates. Until that time, it’s imperative that we do what we can to reduce the number of cases right now.
“If we can reduce the number of cases, then it will reduce the number of deaths," Bar-Yam said. "It will reduce the number of people who get sick and make the task of getting rid of the disease with a vaccine much easier.”