Azar says states will decide who gets the first shots of Covid-19

The CDC panel weighs: ACIP met on Monday and unveiled the principles that will guide its recommendations. The group says vaccine distribution should aim to tackle health inequalities amid disproportionate Covid-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths among black, Latin American and Native American populations, as well as mistrust of long standing with regard to the medical establishment among these groups due to historical abuse and mistreatment. .

How the federal government will distribute the doses: The Trump administration will divide shipments of the coronavirus vaccine to states in December and beyond based on the size of their adult population, rather than the number of Covid-19 cases they have, Azar said.

“We wanted to keep it simple,” Azar said. “Once we get through those initial slices where we’re in a much greater scarcity situation, we’ll eventually get to where we need to be on a per capita basis.”

Those in charge of Operation Warp Speed ​​have stuck with the logic of the people to avoid having a distribution formula initially and changing it later, he added.

Governors provided limited comments on how the first doses should be broken down by state, Azar said, noting that they “wanted to keep it simple as well.”