A federal vaccine advisory committee decided to hold off on voting to decide who should get the first doses of a future COVID-19 vaccine, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, a group of medical experts that advises the CDC, had expected to vote at a meeting Sept. 22 on a plan to give priority to early doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.
The committee may instead wait until a vaccine is authorized before voting on a plan, people familiar with the situation told the Journal. The next committee meeting is scheduled for late October.
The committee said previously that front-line healthcare workers would likely receive priority status when it comes to COVID-19 vaccines. The committee doesn't have final say in the matter, but it sends recommendations to the CDC which then decides whether to make them policy.
A separate committee, called the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine is also developing an allocation plan for COVID-19 vaccines.
William Schaffner, a liaison to the vaccine advisory committee, told the Journal that the longer it takes to develop a prioritization plan, the more difficult it will be for state health officials to come up with vaccination plans.
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