First vaccines will go to healthcare workers: US panel

NEW YORK: Healthcare workers and nursing home residents will be the first in the US to get Covid-19 vaccines, a high powered government panel announced late Tuesday. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) panel voted 13-1 to recommend these two groups get priority while doses are in short supply in the early weeks. Burden of disease figured prominently in the decision to bring nursing home residents into the ambit early. CDC experts noted that 40 percent of the deaths in the US have been among those in long term care facilities. The Food and Drug Administration has not yet authorised emergency use of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. That decision is likely to be taken between December 10-17. Both vaccines have shown more than 90 percent effectiveness in large scale studies. (IANS)

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