Alaska will be first state in U.S. to offer Covid-19 vaccines to all adults | Hacker News Reader

Alaska will be first state in U.S. to offer Covid-19 vaccines to all adults

alaskapublic.org

34 pointsCPLX13 comments

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Watch the people in power still say once 70%+ of population is vaccinated or has been exposed :

“But you need to social distance”

“But you still need to wear 3 masks, as 3 is obviously better than 2”

“But there are new strains that you’re not protected against”

Although not a state, this is true in the US Virgin Islands as well.

With the J&J vaccine and most states having >15% of the population with at least one dose, we really should just be distributing to anyone and everyone as fast as possible.

At least in my state the sorts of gross inefficiencies believe to be caused by the binning just aren’t true. There were some early wrinkles but were now rate limited by the total number of doses. So while frustrating for folks such as myself it still makes sense to prioritize based on need

I would argue that most states aren't prioritizing based on need. They're prioritizing based on risk if covid is caught, where they ought to be prioritizing primarily on risk of catching covid (with perhaps some secondary prioritization for risk if caught).

Under such a scheme, we'd have vaccinated anyone who has a hard time isolating, e.g. grocery store workers, nursing home residents and staff, prisoners. Instead most states are first vaccinating retirees who can easily avoid infection.

Sure, depends on how one chooses to define need as you point out.

I don’t disagree, there are a lot of factors going into prioritization and I don’t agree with all of the decisions but at the end of the day, and at least in my state, the notion that this is slowing things down is simply untrue

Buried deep in the article: 16- and 17-year-olds are also eligible, although they're limited to the Pfizer vaccine (the other two are only currently approved for 18+).

Title misspelled "both adults"

Is it because they were allocated the same number of vaccines as every other states, regardless of population....

>Alaska’s state-sponsored distribution effort has seen a major boost from its tribal health care partners, which have been allotted separate shipments of vaccine through a unique partnership with the federal government — aimed at recognizing both tribes’ sovereign status and COVID-19’s disproportionate impact on Alaska Native people.

They weren’t, because that isn’t how vaccines are being allocated in the US. Please do even the most minimally basic of research before slinging accusations.

something is screwed up somewhere?

https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/0...

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