A CDC panel made up of medical and public health experts has voted on recommendations for who should get the first Covid vaccines: healthcare workers and the elderly housed in long-term care facilities that have been decimated by the virus.
The CDC estimates that most people in these high-priority groups could be fully vaccinated by early next year, if a vaccine is authorized by the Food and Drug Administration by mid-December, as is currently anticipated.
But because supplies will be short in the first few weeks after that authorization, individual health care and long-term care facilities will likely need to determine their own priority schedules for vaccination once they’ve obtained the vaccine. Long-term care facilities include nursing homes, assisted living and other residential facilities.