[ad_1]
Patients enter Levi’s Stadium to receive Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines on February 9, 2021 in Santa Clara. Photo by Anne Wernikoff, CalMatters.
###
Californians with high-risk health conditions will be eligible for COVID-19 vaccines starting March 15, the Secretary of State for Health announced today.
According to previous state guidelines, people with chronic illnesses were not eligible for vaccination until those 65 and older, first responders, food industry workers, and educators were not vaccinated. That was nearly 15 million eligible Californians before people with severe chronic illnesses and disabilities could enroll.
Under the new guidelines, people aged 16 to 64 with high-risk illnesses – such as heart, lung or kidney disease, diabetes, cancer and a weakened immune system – or with developmental disabilities will join older Californians, food workers and educators starting March 15.
California Health and Human Services Secretary Dr Mark Ghaly told a press briefing today that delaying by a month will allow the state to boost its vaccine supply, develop ways determine eligibility and figure out how to reach people confined to their homes.
Advocates for people with disabilities and those with serious health conditions had criticized Gov. Gavin Newsom for not prioritizing some of California’s most vulnerable residents, saying he was sacrificing fairness for speed.
30% of BMT patients die within 30 days of being diagnosed with COVID-19. This is not enough to give us priority for vaccination. It’s so hard to live in a world that treats us like throwaway #HighRiskCA https://t.co/xlWSTcIQ9s
– Brooke Vittimberga (@brookevitti) February 12, 2021
California until last month had included people with disabilities or chronic health conditions in the same priority group as Californians aged 65 to 74. They were in the level just behind people aged 75 and over. But the state has decided to prioritize vaccinations primarily by age, targeting those 65 and over. This meant that medically vulnerable people were left behind.
State officials listed the serious health conditions in a notice to providers, including:
- Cancer, common with weakened or immunocompromised state
- Chronic kidney disease, stage 4 or above
- Chronic lung disease, dependent on oxygen
- Down syndrome
- Immunosuppressed state (weakened immune system) following a solid organ transplant
- Pregnancy
- Sickle cell anemia
- Heart disease, such as heart failure, coronary artery disease, or cardiomyopathies (excluding hypertension)
- Severe obesity (body mass index ≥ 40 kg / m2)
- Type 2 diabetes mellitus with hemoglobin A1c greater than 7.5%
The federal Centers for Disease Control recommends that people with underlying illnesses, including heart and kidney disease, diabetes, cancer, a weakened immune system, Down syndrome, and obesity, receive the vaccine alongside those aged 65 to 74. But states are allowed to adjust these priorities.
Other states vary in how they prioritize people with medical conditions.
New York will begin immunizing people with high-risk illnesses, including pregnancy and developmental disabilities, on Monday. Florida is currently vaccinating people considered by hospital providers to be “extremely vulnerable” to COVID-19, as well as people 65 years of age and older. In contrast, Kansas has placed people under 65 with high-risk conditions behind people 65 and over, prisoners, and people living in “collective institutions” that are not retirement homes.
###
The coverage, translation and distribution of CalMatters COVID-19 is supported by generous grants from the Blue Shield of California Foundation, California Wellness Foundation, and California Health Care Foundation.
CALmatters.org is a non-profit, non-partisan media company explaining the politics and politics of California.
[ad_2]
Source link