Last week the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced a formal distribution plan for the COVID-19 vaccine. It recommend healthcare workers as well as residents and staff of long-term care facilities be vaccinated first, followed by a broad range of essential workers.
Less clearly laid out in the CDC guidelines are what exactly constitutes an essential worker. Construction workers have been considered essential workers in many states since the start of the pandemic, but were not specifically listed under the CDC’s examples of essential workers.
Asked if he was concerned that construction workers were not directly named in the CDC’s latest materials, Brian Turmail, the vice president of the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC), downplayed the issue. “Those are just examples,” he told the web site constructiondive.com.
In mid-October, AGC president and CEO Stephen Sandherr wrote public letters to President Donald Trump and President-Elect Joe Biden calling for the implementation of a nationwide vaccine distribution plan. In the letters, Sandherr put forward three recommendations:
- Establish and implement a nationwide plan;
- Prioritize distribution of vaccines to vulnerable populations and essential workers;
- Ensure that vaccination distributions do not lead to needless economic disruptions.
“The advent of the new vaccines may, ironically, lead to more economic disruption if not handled in a manner that inspires confidence,” Sandherr wrote in the letters. “AGC respectfully urges you to establish a nationwide vaccination distribution plan that includes our three recommendations.”
Based on this most recent guidance, the CDC’s vaccination plan appears to mostly fall in line with all three of the AGC’s recommendations. The pressure is certainly on for this vaccination process to be pulled off as smoothly as possible. CDC Director Robert Redfield recently said that the period from December through February could be the “most difficult time in the public health history of this nation.”
Article source here: What Construction Professionals Need to Know About the CDC’s Vaccine Plan
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