Coronavirus Vaccination Campaign: A Comprehensive Guide

Health care workers and nursing home residents may be able to receive coronavirus vaccinations as early as December, while the general public may not be able to get vaccinated until late spring or the summer, depending on the availability of vaccines and manufacturing capacity. The CDC estimates that 264 million people, including 21 million health care personnel, 3 million long-term care residents, 87 million essential workers, 100 million adults with high-risk medical conditions, and 53 million people 65 and older, are priority groups for vaccination. Several groups of independent experts have weighed in on how to allocate vaccines, including the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine and Johns Hopkins University.

Key Takeaways:

Health care workers and nursing home residents may be prioritized for vaccination as early as December, with the FDA scheduled to consider emergency use authorization for Pfizer and BioNTech's Covid-19 vaccine on December 10 and Moderna's vaccine on December 17.
21 million frontline health care workers and 3 million residents of long-term care facilities will likely be the first to receive vaccinations.
50 million more doses of vaccine are expected to be available in January and 60 million more in February and March, depending on the success of other vaccine candidates in Phase 3 trials.
The National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine and Johns Hopkins University have laid out principles for vaccine allocation, including protecting the health care system, vulnerable populations, and equitable distribution across society.
Essential workers, people with underlying conditions, and older adults living in congregate settings may be included in Phase 1b of the vaccine rollout in January.
More vaccine candidates, including AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, and Novavax, are expected to be authorized or ready for authorization in January or February, potentially adding to the overall vaccine supply.
People with high-risk medical conditions and essential workers may be prioritized in February, with vaccination efforts expanding to pharmacies, medical practices, and other locations.
Young adults and children may not have access to vaccines until May at the earliest, depending on the allocation decisions made by the CDC's Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices.
The federal government has promised to provide all coronavirus vaccines free of charge to the American public.
Hospital and health care workers will likely receive vaccinations at their workplaces, with pharmacies, medical practices, and other locations expected to follow in February or later.
The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have reported side effects such as soreness at the injection site and general malaise, but experts say this is a sign of the vaccine working to stimulate the immune system.

Statistics:

40 million doses of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are expected to be available by the end of December.
50 million more doses are expected in January and 60 million more in February and March, depending on the success of other vaccine candidates.
264 million people, including 21 million health care personnel, 3 million long-term care residents, 87 million essential workers, 100 million adults with high-risk medical conditions, and 53 million people 65 and older, are priority groups for vaccination.
$7.76 billion has been paid upfront to four companies (Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, and Novavax) for their vaccines, with tens of millions more paid to three other companies to guarantee the development of coronavirus vaccines.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer estimated that states need $30 billion to get vaccine distribution plans into place.

Sources:

Maggie Fox, CNN (CNN) article.
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices.
US Food and Drug Administration's Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee.
AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, and Novavax vaccine candidates.
National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine and Johns Hopkins University reports on vaccine allocation.
US Government Accountability Office report on vaccine manufacturing.