COVID-19

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) is an independent panel of medical and public health experts brought together by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to make recommendations about vaccine policies. The ACIP recommends to the CDC which people should be in each phase. While states often follow the ACIP recommendations, final decisions about when different groups will get the vaccine are made by each state. In California, those decisions are being made by the California Department of Public Health (CDPH). The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health refines the state’s plan and decides exactly how each phase of vaccine distribution will be carried out: where vaccines will be given, who will be giving the vaccines, and how the county will make sure everyone has a chance to get a vaccine when it is offered to people in their phase.

These goals and principles are used to guide decisions about the order in which people are vaccinated

Goals – what we are trying to achieve:

• Reduce deaths and cases of serious disease
• Keep key healthcare services and the larger community operating.
• Limit the extra strain that COVID-19 is having on people with chronic health conditions and people experiencing extreme hardship.

Principles –the guidelines that will help us get to our goals:

• Do as much good and as little harm as possible. For example, make sure we use the vaccine that comes to Los Angeles County as efficiently as possible AND make sure people don’t have to go to crowded places where they could catch COVID-19 to get the vaccine.
• Reduce health inequities. This means that the needs of people who experience worse health due to poor living or working conditions are recognized in planning the phases for distribution.
• Promote justice. This means, for example, making sure richer people can’t buy their way to a place at the head of the line.
• Promote transparency. In other words, make sure the public has information on every step in the process and knows where they can get more information if they need it.

In addition, there are other things to consider, like how to offer the vaccine in a way that reaches as many of the people in each phase as possible. This is complicated, especially since we don’t want people to gather in big crowds where they can’t be six feet apart when they get vaccinated.

Healthcare workers and people who live in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities are being offered the first doses of COVID-19 vaccines.

• Healthcare workers are at high risk of being exposed to the virus that causes COVID-19 and getting sick. Healthcare workers include clinical staff such as doctors, nurses, and therapists as well as people who work in other areas like laboratories and hospital environmental services. Vaccinating these people first protects them, but it also helps to keep the healthcare system working and helps protect patients from getting COVID-19.
• People who live in long-term care facilities (for example, nursing homes) are at high risk of COVID-19. This is because they live together and are often older adults with medical conditions. If they get infected, they are more likely to get very sick and even die. Vaccinating people who live in these settings will save lives.

The CDC has recommended who should be in Phases 1A and 1B but these groupings may be modified by the State. Frontline essential workers were chosen because they cannot work from home and provide critically important services and are at high risk of being exposed to the COVID-19 virus. Older adults, and adults with medical conditions are given priority because they are more likely to become very sick if they get COVID-19. We will share more information when it is available from the CDC and the State. 

Children will not be offered vaccine in the near future. The Pfizer vaccine has only been authorized by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) for people age 16 and over and the Moderna vaccine is only authorized for people age 18 and over.

Current situation – residents of long- term care facilities and healthcare workers

• Healthcare workers who work for hospitals in LA County are being vaccinated by their employers.
• Healthcare workers and residents of skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) are being vaccinated onsite by the facility staff, Public Health, community, or healthcare partners. 
• Healthcare workers and residents of other long-term care facilities with congregate living, such as assisted living, will be vaccinated onsite by staff from Walgreens and CVS thorough a federal pharmacy program.
• Public Health and county, city, community, and healthcare partners are working together to vaccinate other healthcare workers in community clinics and special vaccination sites.

Note: Healthcare workers include clinical staff such as doctors, nurses, and therapists as well as people who work in other areas that may put them at risk like laboratories or hospital environmental health services. Only healthcare workers at high and medium risk of getting COVID-19 are currently being offered vaccination.

Future groups of people

When vaccine is available to other groups of people, it will likely be given at:

• Primary care clinics
• Pharmacies
• Some workplaces, and
• Special vaccination sites run by Public Health and county, city, community, and healthcare partners