Barr says no evidence of fraud that would change US election outcome – live

A government panel on Tuesday formally recommended early doses of Covid-19 vaccines be given first to healthcare workers and long-term care facility residents in the US, generally seen as people who live in nursing homes and assisted living facilities.

Together, that group would represent roughly 23 million Americans, disproportionately including women, people of color and low-wage workers who makeup the healthcare labor force.

The recommendation from the panel at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) hinges on a vaccine being approved for emergency use by the US Food and Drug Administration and later recommended by the advisory panel.

“I believe my vote reflects maximum benefit, minimum harm, promoting justice, and mitigating the health inequalities which exist in distribution of this vaccine,” said José Romero, chair of the committee, explaining his vote in favor of the recommendation.

The recommendation will likely be the basis of vaccine distribution for states and US territories, which carry out vaccination campaigns. States must complete their final requests for the leading vaccine candidate by the end of this week.

“In the time it takes us to have this meeting, 180 people will have died of Covid-19,” said Beth Bell, a member of the advisory committee on immunization practices, a US CDC group which made the formal recommendation.

More than 243,000 healthcare workers have had confirmed Covid-19 cases, and 858 have died, according to CDC data. A separate database run by the Guardian and Kaiser Health News is investigating the deaths of more than 1,400 health workers.

Further, while long-term care home residents represent less than 1% of the US population, they represent more than 40% of Covid-19 deaths.

More than 100,000 people living in care homes have died in the pandemic. The advisory panel also recommended vaccination campaigns specifically focus on nursing homes, where the most medically vulnerable live.