CDC unveils key guidelines for Covid-19 vaccine distribution

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has chalked out key guidelines for the COVID-19 vaccine distribution as major vaccine players, including Pfizer, Moderna, and AstraZeneca, have reported almost 90 per cent efficacy of their vaccines.

In the United States, the initial group to be vaccinated include health care workers, essential workers like law enforcement personnel and first responders, adults with chronic health conditions, and adults over 65 years of age.

According to a report published in the journal Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report(MMWR), CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) put forth four ethical principles to guide people on the distribution of the first limited doses of any authorized COVID-19 vaccine.

The authors wrote: “During a pandemic, ethical guidelines can help steer and support decisions around prioritization of limited resources.”

They added: “Consideration of ethical values and principles has featured prominently in discussions about the allocation of COVID-19 vaccines. This consideration is particularly relevant because the pandemic has highlighted long-standing, systemic health, and social inequities.”

The main focus is on people at the highest risk of COVID-19, as well as people who are critical to keeping others protected and healthy, such as health care workers.

Another principle that CDC mentioned is justice. This is to ensure that everyone, regardless of their economic or social situation, can have access to the vaccine.

The ACIP concluded that companies inoculating the public should keep in mind ways to conquer such disparities.

And, in the final point, the agency called for transparency in explaining how prioritization decisions are made, so the public understands the data and evidence on which they were based.