Front-line essential workers and adults 75 and over should be next to get the coronavirus vaccine, a CDC advisory group says

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These include police and firefighters, teachers, day-care staff, grocery store workers and prison guards

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Grocery store employees, teachers, emergency workers and other people on the front lines of America’s workforce should be next to get the coronavirusvaccine, along with adults ages 75 and older, a federal advisory panel said Sunday.

The recommendations, which came two days after regulators authorized a second coronavirus vaccine, will guide state authorities in deciding who should have priority to receive limited doses of shots made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. More than 2.8 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine have been distributed, and 556,208 of those shots were given as of 2 p.m. Sunday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The groups designated Sunday include about 49 million people, some of whom could begin getting shots early in the new year. The priorities represent a compromise between the desire to shield people most likely to catch and transmit the virus, because they cannot socially distance or work from home, and the effort to protect people who are most prone to serious complications and death. Continue reading.