Speaker 1: It's Tuesday, December two. I'm Oscar Ramirez from the Daily
Speaker 1: Dive podcast in Los Angeles, and this is reopening America.
Speaker 1: The CDC panel over the weekend has made its recommendations
Speaker 1: on who is next in line to receive the two
Speaker 1: vaccines we have available so far. What it's called Phase
Speaker 1: one B. We'll see first responders such as police and firefighters,
Speaker 1: other frontline workers like teachers and grocery workers, and people
Speaker 1: over seventy five get the vaccine. Karen Wintrout, health reporter
Speaker 1: at USA Today joins us for who's next in getting
Speaker 1: the Maderna and Fiser vaccine. Thanks for joining us, Karen,
Speaker 1: thanks for having me. A CDC panel met over the
Speaker 1: weekend to give their recommendations for who should be next
Speaker 1: in line for the vaccine. We have two vaccines out
Speaker 1: right now, one from five or one from Madernner. They're
Speaker 1: very similar vaccines. We've talked about them a lot before,
Speaker 1: these m RINA vaccines. So the first people that were
Speaker 1: recommended to get these vaccines the Phase one A, we're
Speaker 1: front line healthcare workers and people in long term health
Speaker 1: care facilities. Now we're going to Phase one B. This
Speaker 1: is gonna be police, firefighters, teachers, and other essential frontline
Speaker 1: essential workers like grocery store workers. So, Karen, tell us
Speaker 1: what happened at the c d C meeting and what
Speaker 1: they were recommending. So this committee makes the decisions, makes
Speaker 1: the recommendations as to who should get the vaccine in
Speaker 1: what order, and they did exactly what you just said.
Speaker 1: They recommended that people who are on the front lines,
Speaker 1: who can't stay home and keep themselves safe, being the
Speaker 1: next group of people. So as you said, teachers, grocery
Speaker 1: store clerks, firefighters, that sort of thing, and also people
Speaker 1: over seventy, so again the people at highest risk for
Speaker 1: poor outcomes if they catch COVID. And to put this
Speaker 1: all in perspective, you know, obviously we're doing this because
Speaker 1: doses of the vaccine are in limited capacity. This phase
Speaker 1: that we're talking about right now, Phase one B, the
Speaker 1: second phase isn't supposed to start until February, right, I
Speaker 1: think that will probably start sooner than that. So what
Speaker 1: they said today was twenty million doses in December. I
Speaker 1: think that will cover hospital workers and people in nursing homes,
Speaker 1: and then the next round will start at some point
Speaker 1: in January. We don't have a date yet. And they'll
Speaker 1: be thirty million doses available in January, so thirty million
Speaker 1: more people will be able to get vaccinated in January,
Speaker 1: and the twenty million who got vaccinated in December for
Speaker 1: the first time, we'll be able to get their second
Speaker 1: shot in January. We've talked about this before. You know,
Speaker 1: states have the final say and who will get the
Speaker 1: vaccine next. These are just recommendations, but these are really
Speaker 1: difficult decisions and things to play out, things to go
Speaker 1: through on who should be next, and they make the
Speaker 1: recommendations at the local level. You know, a lot of
Speaker 1: people can be angry or maybe say, hey, you're leaving
Speaker 1: other people out, things like that, but just talk a
Speaker 1: little bit about how difficult some of these decisions could be.
Speaker 1: To me. One of the trickiest is prisoners, people who
Speaker 1: are behind bars. So obviously, you know, we want to
Speaker 1: protect upstanding citizens first, but there's been huge outbreaks in
Speaker 1: prisons around the country and their outcomes are much worse
Speaker 1: than they are in the general population. And also people
Speaker 1: from the public come into these prisons, prison guards, visitors,
Speaker 1: that sort of thing. So what happens in the prison
Speaker 1: doesn't necessarily stay in the prison. So the question is
Speaker 1: when do you vaccinate them? Do you vaccinate them now
Speaker 1: as you vaccinate nursing home residents and other people in
Speaker 1: congregate settings, in group settings, or do you wait until later.
Speaker 1: I saw that correction workers are in this phase one,
Speaker 1: b our prisoners in that category as well. I think
Speaker 1: that's pretty much up to the states. I don't think
Speaker 1: they're saying you have to put them in one group
Speaker 1: or another. Some states have already begun in the first group,
Speaker 1: and other states are saying, no way, we don't want
Speaker 1: them that early. So it really is going to be
Speaker 1: a state by state decision there. The panel did also
Speaker 1: recommend the phase after that, Phase one C, and in
Speaker 1: there you get you know, public health workers, food service workers,
Speaker 1: construction workers, media workers, and a few others. Those are
Speaker 1: people again who can't exclusively stay home, whose jobs take
Speaker 1: them not into a high risk situation, but into a
Speaker 1: situation where they come into contact with other people. Where
Speaker 1: do people get in line for these vaccines and prove
Speaker 1: that they are who they are, that they are one
Speaker 1: of these front line workers. Do they go through their employers,
Speaker 1: are they going through their healthcare providers? How do they
Speaker 1: get in line for these You know, I'm not sure
Speaker 1: that's entirely clear yet. It's very easy with this first round.
Speaker 1: You know the hospital is going to vaccinate hospital workers,
Speaker 1: the nursing home is going to vaccinate its workers and
Speaker 1: its residents. Once you get into a broader population, I
Speaker 1: don't know. Am I gonna have to show my USA today?
Speaker 1: I d to get vaccinated right and you know I
Speaker 1: should be able to go theoretically to the Walgreens down
Speaker 1: the street and get that. So could you sneak in early?
Speaker 1: It's possible that you could, certainly with the age requirements,
Speaker 1: so the next group is over seventy The group after
Speaker 1: that one C is sixty to seventy four, so that
Speaker 1: you could use a driver's license to show your age.
Speaker 1: For people who have comorbilities, who have other illnesses, high
Speaker 1: risk medical conditions. If you walk up to a pharmacist
Speaker 1: and say I have diabetes I need a shot, are
Speaker 1: they going to question that? It seems unly. It seems
Speaker 1: like there'll be a lot of trust involved. I did
Speaker 1: have a question about the Fiser vaccine because the National
Speaker 1: Institutes of Health is looking for people to study those
Speaker 1: that have severe allergic reactions to the Fiser vaccine. I
Speaker 1: know there was a couple of cases in the UK,
Speaker 1: and the first day of the rollout there was a
Speaker 1: few cases that have happened here in the United States
Speaker 1: as well. So the n i H is looking to
Speaker 1: find people so they can study this to see what
Speaker 1: might be causing all of that. So that's kind of
Speaker 1: what they have to do when they see a problem
Speaker 1: is get other people, kind of put them at risk
Speaker 1: in order to understand the problem. It's scary. I'm not
Speaker 1: sure I would volunteer for that, but I think, you know,
Speaker 1: certainly they'll have EpiPens and everything necessary, excuse me, to
Speaker 1: help people if they get into a bad situation. Is
Speaker 1: it as simple as just giving somebody an EpiPen to
Speaker 1: get them out of their allergic reaction or is there
Speaker 1: a lot more that goes into that that actually seems
Speaker 1: to be the solution. I mean, sometimes I think with
Speaker 1: one of the four people you just mentioned needed a
Speaker 1: second EpiPen the second shot. But in general that solves
Speaker 1: the problem. But it's not fun from what I understand
Speaker 1: from frankly giving themselves. It's a shot, it's quite unpleasant
Speaker 1: and um, you know, probably takes you a couple of
Speaker 1: days to recover. So it's not like a sneeze, you know.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's a it's a major medical situation, and
Speaker 1: they are going to be doing these things in medical settings.
Speaker 1: So I'm sure it's gonna be tough to find people,
Speaker 1: as you say, that are gonna be willing to kind
Speaker 1: of put themselves through that. It goes that way. So
Speaker 1: we'll monitor all that and uh, we'll see how these
Speaker 1: rollouts of the vaccines continue to go in the US.
Speaker 1: Karen Weintrout, health reporter at USA Today, thank you very
Speaker 1: much for joining us. Thank you so much. I'm Ostar
Speaker 1: Ramirez and this has been reopening America. Don't forget Deer
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