There isn’t one clear answer but a little googling suggests a low end range of 1:4 to 1:10 staff to resident ratio. Some much higher.
I have also read several articles saying many of these people have to work multiple jobs in different facilities to make a living. This helped fuel infections in the first wave.
So yeah, I am going to say there is a good argument that with a limited number of vaccinations available giving it to staff first will give more bang for your buck and also help with general community spread.
Ultimately people more knowledgeable than I will make that call.
Actually, the more I think of it (as a longtime fed employee), the decision to prioritize nursing home residents makes perfect sense. It is easy, and it gives the impression of doing something worthwhile. Both of those factors trump actually doing something intelligent and meaningful.
We have regular briefings from our governor. They’ve already coordinated distribution of the first vaccines based on storage requirements. He hasn’t announced who gets it first but it’s going to focus on: health care workers, nursing home residents, people considered at high-risk for the coronavirus because of medical problems, teachers and school staff members, and others.
I would expect the social metrics of the virus to change when this group is vaccinated.
I will just mention one advantage of vaccinating residents in LTC. So they can receive visitors. I have a good friend whose wife has been in such a facilities for 3 or 4 years. He was not allowed to visit for 2 months in the spring. When he was allowed, for the first few days (he always has visited daily when permitted) she didn’t recognize him. Eventually she did. But now he hasn’t been permitted for the last 2 months and he is wondering if she will ever recognize him again.
Quebec has announced their priorities: people in LTC facilities. Then health care workers. Then the elderly. Flu shots this year were mostly done at pharmacies. It went very smoothly. I expect that so will covid shots. I hope they get the Moderna vaccine since that requires only an ordinary freezer for long term storage and only a fridge for up to several days and I think any pharmacy can manage that.
I hope your friend’s wife rebounds when he can visit. That’s a heartbreaker for all.
I can live with the above priorities, but doubt my fellow Americans can keep their heads about them.
I’m a ‘retired’ nurse with lots of vaccination campaign experience. I would risk coming out of retirement to help vaccinate if TPTB offered me vaccination at the head of the line. I’d be risking a little the vaccine not working for me for the greater good of freeing up one more nurse to care for the hospitalized while I work on the getting folks vaccinated.
Not only is that low, it misses the point of why elder care facilities need vaccine. Vaccinating visitors would only delay the inevitable outbreak.
Assume a facility with 100 residents. If all residents and staff are vaccinated you now have 5 vulnerable residents. This is good because now an outbreak will not mess up the entire facility.
If you don’t vaccinate the residents you have 100 vulnerable elderly. Someone visiting will eventually spread the virus. Vaccines aren’t 100%. So now you have an outbreak in the facility and 100 vulnerable residents. No thanks.
Sorry you consider it low. I feel strongly that far too many resources are wasted on the oldest and least able. Like I said, the only way I would support putting them at the head of the line is if doing so prevented wasting even MORE money on them if they got sick. I’m not convinced that having a good number of elderly folk succumb to COVID would be a tragedy.
I saw an article that for Switzerland they will start with the medical workers. Conveniently the Moderna vaccine will also be manufactured locally. Link
Lonza plans to manufacture 400 million vaccine doses per year at Visp. Back in May, Moderna and Lonza agreed on a total manufacturing output of 1 billion doses per year.
Switzerland will use the military to help distribute the vaccine. Link.
In a first phase, the government aims to immunise people with a health risk. Berset reiterated there were no plans to declare vaccinations mandatory across the country.
Preparations coordinated by the armed forces are underway to organise the logistics for distributing the vaccines across the country when one or several products will be ready.
I just read a pair of articles today about vaccine distribution in the US
They are probably both behind a paywall. (I recently subscribed to the Economist because I was impressed with their covid reporting and wanted to support it.)
They agree that the US will start by vaccinating medical professionals, and that it hasn’t really been decided beyond that, and might vary by state. “An advisory committee to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to recommend who should be first in line for the initial limited number of doses. But governors can make the final call within their states, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said Tuesday.” Pfizer is distributing it’s own vaccine, but the others will be distributed by McKesson Corp. under a US govt. contract. The feds have also partnered with Walgreens and CVS to vaccinate people in long-term care facilities.
Logistics are going to be tricky – especially for the Pfizer one. Not only does it have crazy requirements around being kept cold, it also needs to be diluted with saline solution – most vaccines are shipped at “use this” dilution.
Regarding the ultra cold freezers, they aren’t as rare as people may think. A lot of premixed epoxies used for manufacturing are stored at that temperature. And all of those freezers have an adjustable set point so they can be repurposed as regular freezers if they aren’t needed at some point.