Probably the most talked about thing amongst the media other than the election is the COVID-19 vaccine. Who will make it? How much will it cost? How will it be distributed? These are all questions that are constantly being asked by many. If today the vaccine came out and they stated that fayette county gets to vaccinate 33.3% of their population and I was able to make the decision to who will receive the vaccine there would have to be many factors I would have to take in to consider.
The first and most important in my opinion would be comorbidities. This would be because those people with comorbidities such as heart disease, asthma, COPD, and other conditions that would make you immunocompromised and thus more likely to get the virus. Another thing to take into account is the price because if there is some cost behind the vaccine some may be unable to pay especially if it is expensive. Another major one would be Age, as much as this should not matter it does. People over the age of 65 as people 65 years or older make up 8 out of every 10 deaths from COVID according to the Center for Disease Control (source 1). Because of this the older you are the less likely the vaccine will play a larger role. This means maybe those over 65 may not receive the first round of vaccines. These contextual factors must be considered in any situation especially when it comes to healthcare and this situation is no exception.
Now to decide who gets the vaccine first. According to a 2020 population count (source 2) there are approximately 326,954 people in fayette county so 33.3% of this would be approximately 108,984 give or take half a person. This would mean that about 108,984 people would be able to get the first round of vaccines. To start I would like to recognize frontline workers such as hospital staff that have been deemed necessary such as doctors, nurses, admins, and sanitary/cleaning staff. This would be because they are most at risk of getting sick and are those we want helping those who are sick so the vaccine will help to increase the amount of hospital staff available to help treat patients. Another group of people I would like to include in this front line workers group would be teachers because their teaching of our youth is extremely important as they are the future. This group and the rest of the people deemed essential should be included in group 1 or highest priority because of their risk of getting sick and importance of their job in fayette. These group 1 citizens of fayette are the most likely to get sick and are ones whose jobs the county cannot go without.
The next group of people who would receive the vaccine would be group 2 who would be made up of those within the age range of 18 to 40 years old depending because this would take up about the last of the third of in fayette county who are most likely to survive the virus as those within this age range are those who are most likely to spread the virus to others meaning if we can stop the spread of the virus using the vaccine we can stop the virus all together. Those who do not qualify for either must maintain their current quarantine and protection until the vaccine can be distributed to the remaining of the population.
Now that we have determined who should receive the vaccine first the next question is how would we distribute it. Here for the university to vaccinate the population you could have the students do the same thing that was done for testing except use it to vaccinate the population of college students. For the Hospital staff and frontline workers you could place like tents and pop up places to vaccinate those within the group 1 and two and even the rest when more of the vaccine becomes available.
Overall, making these types of decisions is never easy but sometimes it is unavoidable especially during difficult times like these. Above you can see what I would do if the decision were up to me and though it may not be perfect to me it makes the most sense. This vaccine has the ability to help a lot of people and with a good plan there is no reason it can't help everybody.
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