Who Will Get Vaccinated When
Prior to expanding eligibility to the general public, all states followed the ACIP’s guidance to put healthcare workers and residents of assisted living facilities at the front of the line.
In about one-third of states, additional groups were eligible for vaccination in the initial rollout, diverging somewhat from the CDC’s recommendations.
While in Phase 1, timelines and vaccine eligibility varied by state with some states adhering fully to the order of the ACIP’s subgroups in Phase 1 and others diverging from it.
In the CDC’s Phase 1a, those to receive the vaccine included:
- Healthcare personnel
As of March 15, 2021, more than two-thirds of states diverged from the ACIP guidance for Phase 1a, such as including more groups, and almost all states diverged from the ACIP guidance for Phase 1b, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
In the CDC’s Phase 1b, which focused on frontline essential workers, those to receive the vaccine included:
- Teachers
- Teachers and school staff and daycare workers
- People ages 75 and older
The CDC stated that Phases 1b and 1c can overlap.
During the CDC’s Phase 1c, the vaccine was made available to:
COVID-19 Vaccines:Stay up to date on which vaccines are available, who can get them, and how safe they are.
How Is A Vaccine Developed
There are many stages involved in the development and production of a vaccine, from initial academic research to distribution to hospitals and doctors offices.
Clinical trials are crucial indicators of whether a vaccine is effective. Potential vaccines, as with other drugs, are commonly tested in animals first. Human trials are broken up into three phases, progressively increasing the number of volunteers. If a vaccine candidate appears to be ineffective, has harmful side effects, or is too similar to existing vaccines, it wont move on. Trials are often carried out blind, by which some groups are administered the vaccine and some receive a placebo.
If a vaccine candidate is considered successful in human trials, the developers can seek approval by a national or regional regulatory agency, such as the FDA or the European Medicines Agency. In the United States, less than 10 percent of all drugs that go into clinical trials make it past this part of the process. Prior to approval, a vaccine maker can ask the FDA for an emergency use authorization , which allows the sale of unapproved medical products. Finally, the vaccine must be approved by national regulators in other countries to be distributed abroad. Following approval, the vaccine can be manufactured for broad use. In August 2021, the FDA granted approval to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the first to receive a license in the United States.
Find A Clinic Or Pharmacy Near You
COVID-19 vaccine is always free, no insurance required. Ages 5 to 17 can get Pfizer ONLY, ages 18+ can get Pfizer, Moderna, or Johnson & Johnson. CDC recommends the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines over J& J for both initial and booster vaccinations.
FEMA’s Mobile Community Vaccination Clinic
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is sending its Mobile Community Vaccination Center to Auburn in January.
- January 5 through January 30 at the Auburn GSA
- Language interpretation available on site.
- The site is ADA accessible and has language and ASL interpretation available.
- To request assistance for people with disabilities, please call the Washington State COVID-19 Information Hotline at or email . If you are deaf or hard of hearing, please use the Washington Relay Service .
Make an appointment to get vaccinated at the Auburn site now!
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More: Americans Increasingly Willing To Get Covid
“One of the more notable challenges will be maintaining the cold chain so that the vaccine does not experience a warmer temperature during transportation and storage than it can handle without spoilage,” said Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., chair of the subcommittee on transportation and safety during the hearing Thursday.
‘Complicated’ packaging and storage
Both the Pfizer vaccine and another from Moderna are expected to be available within the next several weeks under emergency use authorizations from the FDA and they have different and very specific transit and storage requirements.
The Pfizer vaccine must be kept at minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit, while the Moderna vaccine must be maintained at minus 4 degrees. The packaging itself will play a large role in maintaining these cold temperatures in transit. For example, Pfizer’s dry ice packaging keeps the vaccine at the necessary temperature for up to 10 days.
“I’ve never seen packaging quite that complicated before, and they’ve been very proud to develop that,” Wheeler said. “I’m pretty confident that aside from real big damage that we’re going to have a lot less spoilage than you think.”
“If we have extra dry ice and I’m sure we will,” Wheeler said, “we can provide that to independent hospitals and clinics around the world and around the country.”
Will A Vaccine Offer Complete Protection Against Covid

Immunization may keep you from getting severely ill but wont necessarily prevent you from getting infected, Fauci said.
The issue is that youre not going to be completely protected against a degree of infection that you might not even notice that you might be able to spread to others, the top doc said in a virtual chat with the Hastings Center.
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Canadas Role In Helping To Vaccinate The World
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to have a profound global impact, especially on vulnerable populations.
Women and children who already experience poverty, exclusion and/or marginalization more severely are especially impacted. As a part of Canadas Feminist International Assistance Policy, our response includes a particular focus on supporting:
- the different needs of women and girls
- the worlds poorest and most marginalized people
- education, health, nutrition and sexual and reproductive health and rights
Providing access to vaccination for all peoples is one of the most effective ways of controlling the virus.
Unequal Vaccine Distribution Self
Disparities, Inequity Morally Unconscionable, Says Head of World Trade Organization, Urging Practical Means to Tackle Hurdles
With the number of new COVID-19 cases around the world nearly doubling over the past two months approaching the highest infection rate observed during the pandemic the unequal distribution of vaccines is not only a moral outrage, but economically and epidemiologically self-defeating, the head of the United Nations health agency told a special ministerial meeting of the Economic and Social Council today.
Vaccine equity is the challenge of our time, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization , told the gathering in opening remarks. And we are failing.
Driving that point home, he reported that, of the 832 million vaccine doses administered, 82 per cent have gone to high- or uppermiddle-income countries, while only 0.2 per cent have been sent to their low-income counterparts. In highincome countries alone, 1 in 4 people have been vaccinated, a ratio that drops precipitously to 1 in 500 in poorer countries.
The meeting held in virtual format with the theme A Vaccine for All brought together senior officials from the United Nations, Governments, business, the scientific community and civil society. They explored ways to guarantee equal access to vaccines as a global public good, and strengthen the readiness of countries for their distribution.
Panel I
Dialogue
Panel II
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Which Vaccine Is Authorized For Kids
Pfizers vaccine is authorized for children age 5 and older. Its one-third the dose for those 12 and older and is given in two shots, three weeks apart, according to CDC recommendations. Doses for kids are available at doctors offices and certain retail pharmacies. Call your doctor or check pharmacy websites. Both Pfizer and Moderna are researching how their vaccines work in children as young as 6 months.
Can Vaccines End The Pandemic
Even with a variety of vaccines with at least limited approval, there remains the tremendous challenge of making enough and distributing them to the global population. Though multilateral initiatives such as COVAX and individual governments are investing billions of dollars to expand production plants, current global manufacturing capabilities are far below whats neededonly about a dozen countries have the capacity to produce COVID-19 vaccines.
This task has not only motivated countries to scale up production, but also pitted them against one another amid a limited vaccine supply. Wealthy countries including Australia, Canada, and the United States struck deals with manufacturers early on to provide their own countries with more than enough doses, leaving lower-income countries unable to immunize but a small proportion of their citizens. China and India have large vaccine industries, which allows them to reserve some of their vaccine supplies for their own populations. Experts including CFRs Thomas J. Bollyky have warned that bidding wars over vaccines lead to inequitable distribution and, ultimately, fail to eliminate the risk of new outbreaks. WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has echoed this, asserting that the world must end vaccine inequity to end the pandemic.
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Which Vaccines Will Be Available First
The first two U.S. authorized vaccines, made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, both use cutting-edge messenger RNA, or mRNA, technology which means the vaccines use genetic material to provoke an immune response. It is the first time the FDA has approved mRNA vaccines for human use. mRNA vaccines can be developed faster, which is why these two are at the front of the pack. However, they also require colder freezer temperatures than traditional vaccines normally do, which will make them more difficult to widely distribute and administer.
A third vaccine candidate nearing the FDA approval process, from AstraZenecaOxford, is a more traditional recombinant vector vaccine developed by piggybacking virus cells onto another virus .
All three vaccine candidates that have received or are nearing emergency FDA approval will require two doses, which makes distributing and administering them properly, as well as supplying them in sufficient quantities, more complicated.
Helpful Tips To Relieve Side Effects
Talk to a doctor about taking over-the-counter medicine, such as ibuprofen, acetaminophen, aspirin , or antihistamines for any pain and discomfort experienced after getting vaccinated.
People can take these medications to relieve side effects after vaccination if they have no other medical reasons that prevent them from taking these medications normally. Ask your childs healthcare provider for advice on using a non-aspirin pain reliever and other steps you can take at home to comfort your child after vaccination.
It is not recommended to take these medicines before vaccination for the purpose of trying to prevent side effects.
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Identify Facilities Capable Of Storing And Distributing The Vaccine
Both the current leading vaccine candidates require cold storage. One requires ultracold storage at -70 degrees Celsius. Other factors such as parking, accessibility to vulnerable populations, distance from vaccine production facilities, traffic, and overall venue size will also impact which facilities can properly store and distribute a vaccine.
States are currently surveying their systems to know where their sub-80 freezers are, said Julie Swann, a professor of industrial and systems engineering at North Carolina State University, who was advising the CDC. I would expect that kind of cold storage to be available at large hospitals, scientific research facilities, and some large pharmacies.
The facilities Swann mentions are likely those that already administering other vaccines in their normal course of business. These larger facilities may be prioritized in phase 1 of the vaccine distribution process. During this phase, vaccines will be limited and focused first on people serving in health-care settings who may have direct exposure to patients infected with COVID-19. Second will be those who work in essential jobs that keep society running .
How Many Doses Have Been Donated By Each Country

These charts show the cumulative number of doses donated to the COVAX initiative by different countries, broken down by whether the donations have only been announced, actually donated, or delivered to the recipients. This is only available for a select number of countries for which the COVID-19 Task Force reports the necessary data.
The three following charts show the number of doses donated, adjusted for:
COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access
COVAX is a worldwide initiative aimed at equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines directed by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations , and the World Health Organization . COVAX coordinates international resources to enable low-to-middle-income countries equitable access to COVID-19 tests, therapies, and vaccines.
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How Will Vaccines Be Distributed And Who Will Get Them First
The Centers for Disease Control and Preventions Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices will have the final say on who gets first dibs, and Azar has said the initial batch of vaccinations will go to the most vulnerable Americans first.
That committee is following guidance from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, which advises divvying up the vaccine distribution in phases.
The first phase includes front-line health workers and first responders, people with underlying conditions that put them at high risk of serious illness, and adults age 65 and older living in overcrowded settings, including nursing homes, homeless shelters, prisons, jails and long-term health care facilities.
Phase one makes up about 15 percent of the US population.
Throughout The Rest Of Your Body:
- Tiredness
- Fever
- Nausea
Anyone who has had a severe allergic reaction after getting a mRNA COVID-19 vaccine , should not get another dose of either of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines. Anyone who has had a severe allergic reaction after receiving Johnson & Johnsons Janssen COVID-19 vaccine, should not receive another dose of that vaccine.
Learn about getting a different type of COVID-19 vaccine after an allergic reaction.
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Why Novavax Vaccine May Be An Option For Us Troops Who Refused Other Shots
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A COVID-19 vaccine that could soon win federal authorization may offer a boost for the U.S. military: an opportunity to get shots into some of the thousands of service members who have refused other coronavirus vaccines for religious reasons.
At least 175 active duty and reserve service members have already received the e, some even traveling overseas at their own expense to get it. The vaccine meets Defense Department requirements because it has the World Health Organizations emergency use approval and is used in Europe and other regions. The Food and Drug Administration is considering giving it emergency use authorization in the U.S.
Read more: U.S. FDA warns against heart inflammation risk from Novavax COVID-19 vaccine
The Novavax vaccine may be an acceptable option for some of the 27,000 service members who have sought religious exemptions from the mandatory vaccine. Military officials say many troops who refuse the shots cite certain COVID-19 vaccines remote connection to abortions.
Laboratory-grown cell lines descended from fetuses that were aborted decades ago were used in some early-stage testing of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines and to grow viruses used to manufacture the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The vaccines do not contain fetal cells. Novavax, however, says that no human fetal-derived cell lines or tissue were used in the development, manufacture or production of its vaccine.
Read more:
When Will A Vaccine Be Available
Millions of doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines should be available to certain groups by the end of December, according to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar.
We expect to have about 40 million doses of these two vaccines available for distribution pending FDA authorization enough to vaccinate about 20 million of our most vulnerable Americans, Azar said at a Nov. 18 press briefing. And production of course would continue to ramp up after that.
Globally, Pfizer has said it could have 50 million doses by years end.
A different projection, according to information presented to the National Academy of Medicine in late November, said about 25 million doses could become available in the US in December, 30 million in January and 35 million more in February and March.
The Trump administrations Operation Warp Speed has worked with states to determine how many doses theyll need to cover the populations offered a vaccine first.
Azar said once the FDA gives the green light, millions of doses will be shipped within the first 24 hours.
So my message is hope and help are on the way, he said.
Emergency approval from the FDA, however, is not the same as full approval, meaning anyone who gets the shot will receive a fact sheet listing the potential benefits and risks as the studies continue, Dr. Marion Gruber told the Associated Press.
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What Are The Leading Covid
Most of the vaccines approved for at least limited use have been developed by firms and research groups in China, Russia, and the United States.
Scores of other COVID-19 vaccine candidates are undergoing large-scale clinical trials and around two hundred potential vaccines are in preclinical development by pharmaceutical companies, academic institutions, and government agencies.
When Will Homeless People Get The Vaccine
At a national level, the homeless arent slated into any of the proposed vaccine distribution phases by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices . However, the ACIP leaves room for individual states to define the specific members of the priority groups. According to data from the National Academy for State Health Policy, as of December 20, the following states plan to distribute COVID-19 vaccines to homeless shelters during the next phase, 1B:
- Arizona
- Pennsylvania
- Vermont
Massachusetts and Texas dont specify which segment of phase 1 homeless shelters will be given vaccines. Phase 1A is now underway. That means vaccination for the homeless could begin in the next few weeks if supplies are available.
States putting the homeless into later distribution queues worries experts. According to a white paper on vaccines and the homeless released this month by the NHCHC, shelters have been the source of significant COVID-19 outbreak.
While homelessness may not guarantee someone a higher spot on the vaccine priority list, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that people experiencing homelessness have many additional characteristics, such as age and employment in certain jobs, that will also influence when the vaccine will be available to them.
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