Military will not be the First Group to Receive the Coronavirus Vaccine
By Menda Eulenfeld, Sept. 4, 2020
An ad hoc committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has developed a framework for implementing a plan to develop a coronavirus vaccine at the request of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health.
According to an article by Military.com a four tier plan for the vaccine has been recommended. In the plan, the military will not be selected as the first group to receive the vaccine. “…the military has had 38,424 cases of the coronavirus and seven service members have died. About 575 people have been hospitalized and 23,011 have recovered, according to Pentagon data.”
Tier 1: The highest priority target groups who serve important societal needs (e.g., health care providers, emergency services personnel, pandemic vaccine and antiviral drug manufacturers) and vulnerable populations, such as pregnant women and infants;
Tier 2: Groups critical to national security (e.g., National Guard, intelligence services), critical community support personnel (e.g., pharmacists), other critical infrastructure (e.g., just-in-time utility services), high-risk children aged 3–18 years old, and household contacts of infants <6 months old;
Tier 3: Other critical infrastructure groups (e.g., those that maintain transportation, financial infrastructure), other health care, critical government personnel, and children aged 3–18 years without a high-risk condition;
Tier 4: Adults aged 19–64 years with high-risk conditions and adults aged >65 years;
Tier 5: Healthy adults aged 19–64 years not included in other groups.
Source: The National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine