Essential workers are expected to receive COVID-19 vaccine ahead of elderly, high-risk patients

Essential workers — including people who work in meat-packing plants, waste management operations, and the transportation sectors, as well as police officers, firefighters, and teachers — are expected to have earlier access to coronavirus vaccines than any group save for health care workers, Stat News reports. That means those workers would move ahead of people 65 and older and those with high-risk medical conditions.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, the group of experts tasked with making recommendations to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccine use, has not yet had a formal vote on the matter, but members expressed support for the proposal, writes Stat.

The intention is reportedly to ensure people of color, who have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic and make up a high percentage of essential workers, are at the front of the priority line, should they choose to get vaccinated.

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"These essential workers are out there putting themselves at risk to allow the rest of us to socially distance," said Beth Bell, a global health expert from the University of Washington who is on the ACIP and chairs its COVID-19 work group. "And they come from disadvantaged situations, they come from disadvantaged communities." Read more at Stat News.