I'm sorry, the marathon runner goes first?

[davidgillon]

I've been talking to journalists again.

‘Sickening’ vaccine priority list ‘shows disabled people are disposable’

 

Lisa Egan, a friend of mine and fellow activist, spotted that the current priority list for the Coronavirus Vaccine, whether Pfizer or whatever, currently has the working age clinically extremely vulnerable contingent only sixth in priority to receive it, and prompted John Pring of Disability News Service to write about it. As I was helping spread the word I got tagged for comments as well. So the article has comments from Lisa, me, and from Baroness Jane Campbell who is going to ask questions in the Lords (which definitely pushes my impostor syndrome into high gear, doubly so as she's herself clinically extremely vulnerable).

The priority list just doesn't make sense, it has care home patients as first priority (which no one is going to object to given the massacre of residents in the first wave), but explicitly excludes those care home residents of working age. And as some working age adults get stuck in care homes intended for the elderly because of  inadequacies in adult social care, that means those care homes will have to continue the barrier nursing that is straining them to the limits. The caveat just doesn't make sense. And apparently the government doesn't understand it either, because its response to the news that people with Learning Disabilities died at up to 30 times the rate of their non-LD peers (for the 18-30 age group, 6x more generally), the Care Minister said yesterday that at least those of them in care homes would get the vaccine first. Er, no Minister, that's not what your plan says.

The full priority list is:

1. older adults’ resident in a care home and care home workers
2. all those 80 years of age and over and health and social care workers
3. all those 75 years of age and over
4. all those 70 years of age and over
5. all those 65 years of age and over
6. high-risk adults under 65 years of age
7. moderate-risk adults under 65 years of age
8. all those 60 years of age and over
9. all those 55 years of age and over
10. all those 50 years of age and over
11. rest of the population (priority to be determined)

So, referring back to my title, the 65yo regular marathon runners will indeed get the vaccine before even ventilator-dependent care home residents of working age. (I had initially been using immuno-suppressed and ventilator dependent as my comparator, but apparently if you're immuno-suppressed you won't get the vaccine at all, you'll get an antibody cocktail instead).

Yesterday also had the wonderfully reassuring sight of Alok Sharma, the Business Secretary, addressing a journalist's question about whether Brexit will disrupt the vaccine supply chain -- all our doses will be coming from a site in Belgium -- and waffling on about Brexit and how business needs to listen to his ministry, but without ever mentioning the vaccine, for a minute and a half, not once, but three times, in response to three separate questions from three separate journalists. Which was wonderfully reassuring.

Comments

[vass]

j f c

DDDDDDDDD:

[hilarita]

It would be soo much better if they just removed two words at the start of point 1.

Though it would be good to see high risk adults under 65 moved up the priority list. It's not as if they're out there with jobs or anything...

And of course they can't guarantee the vaccine supply chain. Because they can't guarantee *any* supply chain, not food, not medicines, not radio-isotopes.

[soon_lee]

Healthcare workers would be ranked #6?

(Which IMO is not at all high enough if they have to care for COVID19 patients.)

[davidgillon]

Care Home workers are priority 1, along with elderly care home residents
Health and Social Care workers (nurses, doctors etc, plus presumably non-care home based carers) are priority 2, alongside the 80+

That's probably reasonable with regard to medics and carers. The care homes aren't totally suitable for barrier nurses, and the carers aren't trained for it regardless of all the fantastic work they do, while hospitals and nurses plus doctors are.

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

Please see Stephen Colbert interviewing a newly American Citizen former subject of the Queen (who we trust to have a sense of humor when it comes to using her green suit to turn her into Batman. Or to scare any Man that needs it by land rover or rapier wit.)

All the single lady nurses in Jordan hence forth shall be known as ahead of me on queue, because they are at higher risk of infection and are doing work that more needs their hands on people.

America is very bad at grasping how different the world is. Any axis of difference.

[davidgillon]

Apparently Independent SAGE are baffled by the prioritisation as well.

[lilysea]

I thought the order of priority was going to be

1. Doctors/nurses - because they can spread COVID to
a) all the patients they have contact with;
b) all the other doctors/nurses they have contact with;
c) and all the patients b) have contact with;

2. Nursing home workers for the same reason as #1;

3. Home-visit aged care/disability support workers for the same reason as #1;

4. Teachers to break the transmission chain;

5. People with severe lung diseases including but not limited to cystic fibrosis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and mesothelioma;

6. People on immunosuppressant medication including but not limited to cancer patients, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis and organ transplant recipients

[davidgillon]

That's not what our Vaccine Task Force has gone for, but it's not necessarily being matched by other nations. There's a fairly strong case, IMO, for getting it to the care homes first, because not only are they concentrated groups of high risk people, but the staff aren't trained for barrier nursing, and the facilities aren't built for it.

The Royal Society's proposed order is a lot closer to the one you listed, but that was written as a reaction to the Vaccine Task Force proposal, and doesn't seem to have gotten much attention until this week.