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Farmworker advocates, grocery store teacher teachers and other essential workers are worried they will have to wait until this summer to get vaccinated against the coronavirus as California considers prioritizing older residents.
State officials say the decision makes sense given that older people have a much higher rate of hospitalization and death from COVID – 19. However, it could take until June to vaccinate all Californians of 65 years or more, as reported Sunday Sacramento Bee .
A vaccination you have only in Counting age could mean teachers and school staff wouldn’t get vaccinated until next summer , says Debra Schade, member of the Solana Beach District school board in San Diego County and director of the California School Boards Association.
“It will be a heavy job open those districts without the risk mitigation that the vaccine would provide, ”added Schade, according to Associated Press .
Some local governments have already started vaccinating essential workers and Fresno County will begin offering vaccinations Monday at about 3, 000 agricultural workers. But Noe Paramo, an activist with the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation, said that without clear guidance from the state to prioritize vaccinating farmworkers, counties could decide to leave them to halfway .
Three-quarters of the people who died from coronavirus in California had 65 years or more, based on data recently submitted to the state’s vaccine advisory committee.
By vaccinating older adults first, the state could do decrease the number of hospitalizations , which would benefit the community as a whole, said the director of the Department of Public Health, Tomás J. Aragón.
Rates of new coronavirus infections and hospitalizations are declining in California, but health authorities warn that these trends are diminishing adas due to high mortality rates.
