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Earlier this month, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) listed smoking as one of the conditions that put people at high risk of “serious illness associated with COVID-19,” which makes people falling within this category eligible for vaccine in the first phases of inoculation. As a result, essential workers, especially teachers, are frustrated.
Teachers in the state of New Jersey have expressed disappointment that smokers have been given priority over essential workers like them, according to a CNN report.
“We have said from the start that educators should have priority access to the vaccine. This is an important step towards a safer return to in-person learning. We have been in constant communication with the representatives of the State concerning the access of educators to vaccination. We reiterated to them the need to do whatever is necessary to accelerate this access, even in light of the revised federal guidelines from the Trump administration and the slow federal rollout of the current vaccine, ”said Steve Baker, director of communications. from the New Jersey Educators Association, cited by CNN.
New Jersey and Mississippi have rolled out vaccines for smokers under 65. However, several other US states have listed smokers in the next phase, according to an analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
New Jersey Democratic Governor Phil Murphy had made 16-year-olds and older people with health conditions eligible for the vaccine on Thursday. Murphy and New Jersey Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli said the state’s immunization schedule aims to get as many people vaccinated as possible as quickly as possible, starting with those who are most likely to get serious illness from the virus.
“We can’t be too bureaucratic about this … Don’t divide people between job A and job B,” the governor said.
The CDC has advised smokers to get vaccinated in phase 1c of driving. However, the decision to open up eligibility to different constituents was left to the states.
New Jersey, like other states, uses CDC guidelines to determine who falls into which category. For example, the 65 and over cohort and people with health problems are grouped together. What varies by condition is when each group receives the vaccine. New Jersey started with healthcare workers, nursing home staff and residents, then moved on to first responders like police and firefighters.
Next are the elderly and people with health problems, but other states have gone in different directions. For example, teachers are eligible in many states under what the CDC calls Population 1b, including neighbors in New York and Pennsylvania, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, but not yet in New Jersey.
State officials, however, argued that the decision was made with “medical facts, not political will” in mind. “We have to save lives. And we have to protect our hospitals, by the way, from a surge of patients,” Murphy said. Smoking is considered a health risk, a spokesperson for the state’s health department said, echoing the governor’s thoughts.
Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves also announced that vaccines would now be available for people with existing health conditions as well as smokers. However, teachers, police and firefighters in the state were promised vaccinations in the next round, he said.
New Jersey is home to about 2 million smokers who make up the largest population eligible for the vaccine, State Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli told a news conference. Whether smoking is a public health issue or a personal choice is a debate that was sparked by the New Jersey decision. The state health department has stressed that the nicotine in tobacco products is addictive and people who smoke should quit.
While the addition of smokers to the list of those eligible for the vaccine has attracted attention, a bigger problem is at stake: the lack of vaccine supply.
For example, New Jersey currently receives about 100,000 doses per week. But it would take about 470,000 a week to meet expected demand, Persichilli said.
That would be enough to vaccinate 70% of the adult population, or 4.7 million people, in about six months, which is the state’s goal.
Governor Phil Murphy put it this way: supply does not meet demand.
(With contributions from Reuters)
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