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Comment by akmarinov | Hacker News Reader

The US vaccination plan has vaccinating non-essential (read average) people starting at around May-June, so no way it happens in March.

Doctors, the elderly and other more at risk groups will get it before that.

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The plans are expect to change as/if other vaccines become available. If the other vaccines in the pipeline get approved on the expected best case schedule we will be vaccinating anyone who wants it starting march. If there are unexpected issues things could take longer (the UK could still discover something and withdraw Pfizers' approval as a worst case)

I thought we were constrained by supply chain issues? Even if a vaccine was approved that didn't require ultra-low temperature storage, we need glass vials, etc.

Most of the supplies are very common. We make enough glass vials to contain all covid vaccines many times over - they are used for many other medical processes. There are supply chain issues with some of the chemicals needed for mRNA vaccines. I'm sure other vaccines have a different set of chemicals in short supply. Over all, the supplies that apply to all vaccines are well supplied.

The US vaccination plan is state by state. In many states people working in food service and grocery stores, people under 60 who are overweight, have high blood pressure, asthma etc... will be offered the vaccine in phase 2. It’s not just doctors and the elderly, it’s a huge chunk of the population.

And depending on how many people actually want the vaccine and how many are approved it’s possible that healthy, under 65, non essential workers could start being offered the vaccine.

It varies by state but I expect most will at least roughly follow CDC guidelines. There will probably be variance in who is considered essential and who gets it after essential works, at risk, and 65+. At least some places are looking to start vaccinate younger people who are more likely to spread and only then do other older age groups.

Pretty much every state has a publicly available vaccine plan that you can read. The variance is pretty big even though it mostly follows the same progression. My stepdad can get the vaccine in phase 1b in his state, but not my mom. The state over from her my mom could get it in phase 1b, but not my stepdad.

My fiancée's parent's can't get it until phase 3 in their state, but they could both get it in phase 1b in my parent's state.

Relatively small differences in the rules can certainly affect one's position in line quite a bit. For example, an otherwise not at particular risk 60 year old is actually going to be pretty close to the end of the line in a lot of places (even though they may count as "elderly" elsewhere).

That's true. States seems to be split on 60 vs 65 as the age cutoff for healthy adults.

Average people will be getting vaccines long before May. That just sounds like naysaying for the sake of naysaying. Or maybe you have inside info about which additional vaccines will be granted approval and when?

> The US vaccination plan

No such thing, AFAIK

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