ASCP is urging the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to clarify that laboratory personnel are included in the COVID-19 vaccine tier 1a prioritization group (healthcare personnel). Recently, several questions have arisen as to whether pathologists and laboratory professionals are included in the tier 1a rollout group. While physicians and phlebotomists are specifically mentioned in CDC guidelines as tier 1a personnel, the rest of the laboratory team is not. That is, in part, because the guidance document CDC referenced to define healthcare personnel exempts three categories of healthcare professionals: autopsy, laboratory and dental personnel. This exemption stems from the fact that CDC has created separate infection control guidelines for each of these groups.
“Ensuring that America’s healthcare workers are among the first to receive the new COVID-19 vaccines rightly recognizes the vital importance of America’s healthcare workforce,” ASCP President Kimberly Sanford, MD, MASCP, MT(ASCP), said.
The CDC intends the definition of healthcare personnel to be broad. However, ASCP is concerned that as the states adopt their vaccine rollout plans they may exclude laboratory and autopsy personnel. A shortage of the vaccine makes this concern more likely. As a result, ASCP has partnered with the American Dental Association on a December 16 letter to CDC to ensure of these critical members of the healthcare team are included in the tier 1a vaccine rollout. ASCP has also reached out to other organizations concerned about laboratory, pathology and autopsy personnel to ensure broad support.
“Prioritizing the vaccination of healthcare professionals is essential to ensuring that the healthcare system can effectively diagnose and treat those suffering from a COVID-19 infection and to helping to contain the spread of the virus,” Dr. Sanford said. The final letter, which can be obtained
here, was signed by 25 organizations.
ASCP has heard, and investigated, a few concerns that in some local areas pathologists and laboratory personnel have been assigned a lower priority ranking in the COVID-19 vaccine rollout. So far, these reports appear limited. It also appears that these instances are not attributed to federal or state government policy decisions. Instead, they appear to be decisions made by individual healthcare systems, hospitals and other healthcare employers that are prioritizing the vaccines they have received for their personnel.
ASCP will continue to monitor this situation and hopes to report on the CDC’s response to our letter soon.
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