MADISON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – A state committee is recommending moving teachers ahead in line to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
At its meeting Thursday, the State Disaster Medical Advisory Committee voted to recommend prioritizing education and child care workers in case vaccine supply dwindles.
Thursday’s meeting comes after the SDMAC took public comments on Wednesday.
The Department of Health Services has final say on who will be next in line for vaccines. DHS has already announced that it would open up vaccinations to everyone 65 and older beginning on Monday.
“I know that I’ve also received strong arguments for prioritizing them above the rest, because they do allow a vulnerable population: minors, kids, to be able to go as quickly back to any sense of normalcy as possible,” SDMAC chair Dr. Azita Hamedani said.
“Those educators will be in contact with a population of children, that as of this point in time are not eligible to receive the vaccine,” DHS Deputy Secretary Julie Willems Van Dijk said.
“Then there’s all the ripple effects of the benefit in society of getting close to back to normal and school is an area that’s influenced nearly everyone in the communities,” DHS Chief Medical Officer Dr. Ryan Westergaard said.
For Wisconsin Department of Health Services, getting everyone vaccinated is their goal.
“We want everyone to get a vaccine. But in the era of scarcity, what is the most public health good that we can do with how we allocate our earlier rather than later vaccines? The public health good can be defined in a lot of different ways,” Dr. Westergaard said.
When it comes the time for teachers to get the vaccine, DHS officials say it could look like this:
“It may be on site at the school or it may be school staff coming to a location within the community. Alongside that, it could also be school staff seeking vaccine at the places you would normally seek vaccine. We’ve told our vaccinators to ask people for an ID or a paystub…We don’t want to create great barriers for these groups to be able to get vaccine. The point is get vaccines in arms,” Willems Van Dijk said.
Willems Van Dijk says DHS looks forward to going over SDMAC’s entirety of recommendations after they receive the document within the next upcoming days.
