Vermont will distribute future vaccinations for COVID-19 by age group with special consideration given to people with underlying health conditions, state officials said Tuesday.
The state plans to vaccinate the oldest Vermonters first, then move down the line, Agency of Human Services Secretary Mike Smith said at Gov. Phil Scott’s regular twice-weekly press conference.
The state will not prioritize frontline or essential workers beyond the health care workers getting vaccinated through Phase 1A, the current phase of the plan.
That contrasts with the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which recommended that essential workers such as teachers should be considered part of a priority group. “We will consider what may come from national and state advisory panels,” Smith said.
“What we are trying to do is to design a system that is easily implemented, easily understood and prioritizes our fundamental goal, protecting lives,” he said. “Definitions such as essential worker or frontline workers often cause confusion and unnecessary divisiveness, and don’t put enough emphasis on our primary goal of saving lives.”
Vermont Health Commissioner Mark Levine said surveys show that more than 400,000 Vermonters are over 65 or have a chronic condition, such as a heart condition, emphysema, Type 2 diabetes, cancer, chronic kidney disease or a compromised immune system. The high death rate from COVID-19 among older Vermonters clarified the justification for prioritizing that group first, he said.
Vaccinations will be administered in age bands, according to Smith, starting with the oldest age groups.
The decision is a departure from previous vaccine plans from the Department of Health that included essential workers and congregate living situations like prisons, based on previous VtDigger reporting.
Smith said officials will take special measures to protect disadvantaged populations, but didn’t specify what that would look like. The state is still working on the criteria.
“Because of the inequities that may have happened, because of how COVID-19 has struck some of these communities, we’ve got to recognize where they are on the priority and how we bring them into the priority,” he said.
The state has given 9,800 people the first dose of the vaccine in the current 1A group, which includes health care workers and residents and staff of skilled nursing facilities, the most high risk long-term care facilities in the state, Smith said.
Of those vaccinated, 8,000 are health care workers, 800 are emergency medical services personnel, and 900 live or work in long-term care facilities — although the reporting of vaccinations for long-term care workers is on a three-day delay, Smith said.
The state will finish vaccinating almost all skilled nursing facilities by Jan. 8, Smith said. Nineteen of the 37 facilities in the state have received the first dose.
Kinney Drugs, one of the three pharmacy participants distributing the vaccine to long-term care sites, said it would be interested in accelerating the distribution to finish its operations by mid-January. Walgreens has also expressed an interest in speeding it up, Smith said.
Once that phase is finished, the state will begin to vaccinate older Vermonters and those with chronic conditions through several means: primary care providers, pharmacies, local health offices and current COVID-19 testing locations, Smith said.
Throughout the pandemic, 70% of all deaths have been in long-term care facilities, Levine said. Most of the other 30% have been people over 65 years old. “All of this informs leadership decision making for prioritization,” he said.
People with chronic conditions will be “moved to the front of the line,” although officials haven’t decided the details of how they will be vaccinated, Scott said.
The state plans to inform those who next qualify for the vaccine through the media and through primary care providers. Older Vermonters are more likely to have a standing primary care provider, Levine said. More details about the distribution plan will be announced in the coming weeks.
Asked whether he was concerned about the increased risk for essential workers such as teachers or retail employees, Scott said yes.
“That’s why we keep talking about the need to continue to wear a mask and do all the things that we’ve been doing over the last 10 months,” he said.