See this from the New York Times:
"Who should get the vaccine second?
"The coronavirus vaccination campaign is expected to begin in the United States within the next month, and the debate about when different groups of Americans should receive doses is heating up. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended that health care workers and the oldest, most vulnerable people should be first in line. Who should go next?
"Experts are divided. Some argue that the country should prioritize people over 65 and those with serious medical conditions, who are dying of the virus at the highest rates. Others say the next doses should to be given to essential workers, an expansive group that has borne the greatest risk of infection.
"My colleagues Abby Goodnough and Jan Hoffman write that, in the end, the debate is really over what should take the higher priority: preventing death or returning to some semblance of normalcy.
"In a meeting last month, the committee members who advise the C.D.C. on immunization practices signaled their support for putting essential workers ahead of people at risk because of age or medical conditions. That advice runs counter to the framework proposed by the World Health Organization.
"But the pandemic has laid bare entrenched inequality in the United States, and the C.D.C. committee members are also considering social justice concerns alongside scientific evidence to inform their decisions. The essential worker category, for instance, includes a high proportion of minority and low-income workers, who have been disproportionately affected by the virus.
"There’s also the tricky matter of priority within the essential work force — a group that, according to the C.D.C., makes up nearly 70 percent of American workers.
"In the end, the decision will be up to officials from each state to determine which groups will get the vaccine first, and we’re already seeing variations in the plans. Louisiana, for example, puts prison guards and food processing workers ahead of teachers and grocery employees, while Nevada prioritizes education and public transit workers.
"But perhaps the biggest unknown is how many people in the early groups will actually take the vaccine.
"'If a high proportion of essential workers decline to get the vaccine, states will have to quickly move onto the next group anyway,' said Lisa A. Prosser, a professor of health policy and decision sciences at the University of Michigan. 'Because once the vaccines arrive, they will have to be used in a certain amount of time before they degrade.'"
