Want to save more Illinoisans from COVID? Vaccinate the elderly first. – Wirepoints

By: Ted Dabrowski

For months, Gov. J.B. Pritzker has used lockdowns as his main way to handle the COVID pandemic, ignoring calls for him to focus on the elderly instead. The governor’s approach has been a major policy failure, resulting in far too much tragedy. Nearly 90 percent of the state’s 18,000 COVID victims were over the age of 60, with nearly 50 percent of all COVID deaths tied to long-term care facilities. 

Now that vaccines are finally available, Pritzker is repeating the same mistake again. Rather than make the elderly and the frontline staff that take care of them his number one priority for vaccinations, the governor is including a host of “essential workers” – and prisoners, even – at the same level of priority. He’s calling it an “equity-centric vaccination approach.”

It’s a huge mistake to give all those groups equal priority. Unless they happen to be elderly, every vaccine given to the 1.3 million “essential” workers will be one that can’t be given to one of the 1.9 million Illinoisans over age 65 – the group by far most at risk from dying.

Pritzker’s inoculation approach is similar to those used in other states, where other factors like occupation only add more bureaucratic rules that slow the vaccination process down. In New York, that’s led to doses going to waste or sitting idly on shelves. Overall delays have been so significant across the nation that the Wall Street Journal reported last week “only 9.3 million of the 27.7 million vaccine doses that have been shipped to states have been administered.”

The vaccination process shouldn’t be that complicated. Illinois state officials have known for months who should be first in line: the elderly. The simplest and most effective way to save lives is to administer the vaccine based on age: the older or more infirm the person, the more priority they should receive. After all, the state’s case fatality rate for Illinoisans in their 70s is 65 times higher than for those in their 30s (7.47% vs 0.115%).

For sure, if a teacher, a cashier or a prisoner is elderly, give them the vaccine. Or if they have a serious pre-existing condition – diabetes or obesity, for example – vaccinate them. But overall, Illinoisans in nursing homes, their caregivers and other key frontline workers, people with severe pre-existing conditions, and all residents over 65 should all take first priority in getting vaccinated. 

(To get the full story on Illinois’ vaccine rollout, read The Pantagraph’s Can Illinois pick up the pace of vaccinations as it moves to the next phase?”)

Illinois’ flawed rollout

Illinois is still in Phase 1A, the initial vaccination rollout that includes inoculating frontline healthcare workers as well as residents of long-term care facilities. As of Jan. 14, the state ranked 19th in the country for percentage of doses administered. Overall, the state has administered 403,000 of the 958,000 doses (42 percent) already distributed to Illinois. And just over 105,500 Illinoisans, or 0.83 percent of all Illinosans, have been fully vaccinated as of Jan. 17.

Phase 1B, which Pritzker has said Illinois will move to on January 25th, will finally authorize all seniors 65 and above, about 1.9 million people, to get the vaccine. The phase also prioritizes “essential workers,” about 1.3 million people, and now prisoners, to receive the vaccine as well. 

Trying to distribute a limited number of vaccines among those millions of people will likely hurt Pritzker’s goals for equity. Vaccinating all teachers, for example, would actually hurt the governor’s goal because 82 percent of educators in Illinois are white – plus it would deprive the elderly of desperately needed vaccines.

In contrast, both elderly Hispanic and black Illinoisans suffer from far higher case fatality rates than white residents. Protect the elderly first and you necessarily protect minorities first, too. Nearly 80 percent of all minority COVID deaths have occurred in the 60-and-over age bracket. 

Of course, setting up vaccination centers as close as possible to the most impacted minority communities in Illinois is critical to making vaccination there a success.

No plan

The state’s failure to prioritize vaccinations for the elderly can be represented by a simple anecdote of mine: My mother, an 81 year-old cancer survivor, continues to be frustrated by the vaccination process. She, like every other Illinoisan in her age range, should already be targeted for vaccination. But it’s been impossible for her to find out any information about when or where a vaccine will be available for her.

She called her doctor’s office and was told they had no information or timelines for when she could get vaccinated. She also called her hospital network and got the same answer: no info. I received the same response today when I called the hospital myself. My mother would have to wait anyway, I was told, because the hospital group hadn’t yet finished vaccinating its own staff yet.

I hear similar stories from friends whose parents are in nursing homes. They are still waiting.

You’d think by now the state’s health officials would be loath to fail Illinois’ elderly again, but that seems to be exactly what they’re doing.

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Timothy Meyer
3 years ago

The Governor’s handling of the nursing home covid deaths is a disgrace. Since the beginning of the virus nursing homes in IL have represented at least 50 % of total deaths. It is currently still at 50% (national average is 40%). I’m 71 and in good health. I have no issue waiting for the shot until all nursing home patients are done. Has the Governor already received his shot?

Fred
3 years ago

A day or two paid-time-off for non-essential city workers. You need a day on the phone or the internet to get an appointment. Then you probably need a day to go to the vaccine center. Perhaps you have after-effects. Nobody but you knows. So a couple paid time off days to recover. Then submit your parking chit from the vaccine center and maybe you have a lunch bill that the City will also pay. Maybe line up a few cousins to join you in the vaccine queues. Pritzker hasn’t been around long enough to know how it really works. Like… Read more »

Properly vetted2
3 years ago
Reply to  Fred

Add the state employes into this scenario

Riverbender
3 years ago

Prisoners are very important to the Illinois Democrats. Remember for example the great effort put out by former Governor Quinn to assure that each prisoner was able to vote? With the elimination of cash bail though it will be easier for the thug types to vote without special efforts.

Sherie L Dvorak
3 years ago

Vaccinating prisoners first is B.S. my daughter is D.D. and lives in a long term care facility she has not been able to have any home visits this entire last year, nor have they gone to their workshop or an where else!

NB-Chicago
3 years ago
Morefandave
3 years ago

Fast-tracking prisoners convinces me that “following the science” was nothing more than a ploy to attack Trump. The CDC plan, based on science (lethality of COVID to people in that age group)was to prioritize the elderly age 75 and older. Gov. Toilets lowered it to 65 for “equity” reasons because statistically, for Blacks and Hispanics, COVID is lethal at an earlier age. I get that and have no problem with that. Now he’s fast-tracking prisoners for “equity” reasons. The only “equity” reason I can think of is because a higher percentage of prisoners are minorities. But he already covered them… Read more »

Linda
3 years ago

What happened to follow the science and guidelines put forth by the CDC and their experts?
It’s all about CONTROL for Pritzker!

Morefandave
3 years ago
Reply to  Linda

That’s control, spelled P-O-L-I-T-I-C-S.

Illinois Entrepreneur
3 years ago

Let this be a small kernel of wisdom for the Progressives who are insistent that the government run the healthcare sector.

Can you imagine?

George P. Burdell
3 years ago

And they thought rationing only applied to food and gas.

Rick
3 years ago

Well Duckworth got her vaccine already, she jumped to the head of the line of the people wanting it. I’m in other line, I wont get it, my wife doesn’t want it either. Funny how congress immediately exempted themselves from going on Obamacare, but they don’t hesitate to trample others to the head of the line for a vaccine.

Last edited 3 years ago by Rick
Fed up neighbor
3 years ago
Reply to  Rick

And so did Ezike and Awardy so nice of them

Morefandave
3 years ago
Reply to  Rick

We are all equal, but some are more equal than others. That odor you’re detecting is from the animal farm we are now living in.

BLS
3 years ago

I’m perplexed why there is so much trust by a lot of people have in these particular vaccines. I’d be terrified to recommend the mRNA vaccine to an elderly relative. They simply have not been tested on older ages or those with allergies/compromised immune systems. And those are the very segment that will more likely experience bad reactions (sickness/death) to it. If I was more at-risk, why would I automatically introduce a danger to my own health in this case. These are not standard flu vaccines. We can blame the state for the slow roll out (is there anything the… Read more »

Thee Jabroni
3 years ago

Always moving the goalpost,how convenient that illinois and new york are starting to reopen right around the same time that joe blow biden is taking office-coincidence?-you be the judge!

Fur
3 years ago

“equity-centric vaccination approach.”

Have to always dress it up.

Morefandave
3 years ago
Reply to  Fur

Calling it “equity” is a way to discriminate on the basis of ethnicity without admitting that’s what they’re doing. Whenever a liberal uses that word, your B.S. antennae should go up.

Bill
3 years ago

Excellent point.

I’m beginning to think that this whole Covid thing is and was bullsh*t from day one.

Is anyone else beginning to doubt the legitimacy of this “CRISIS”?

Illinois Entrepreneur
3 years ago
Reply to  Bill

I think that the lockdowns should have been stopped after the initial month. Then focus on the elderly, as Wirepoints has pointed out.

Initially, the “crisis” was overwhelming the medical system, not preventing from ever catching the virus. Remember, “flatten the curve?” That turned into, “eradicate the disease,” which is basically impossible (until vaccinations are widespread).

They tried, and all it did was kill our economy and delay the inevitable.

Admin
3 years ago
Reply to  Bill

The virus was real but most of the numbers, analyses and answers weren’t. From the start we should have pursued an approach targeting protection on the elderly instead of pretending this was a mass event.

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“We are not in good shape” Wirepoints’ Ted Dabrowski told ABC 20 Champaign during a segment on Illinois’ latest population losses. Illinois was one of just three states to shrink in the 2010-2020 period and has lost another 300,000 people since then. Ted says things need to change. “It’s too expensive to live here, there aren’t enough good jobs and nobody trusts the government anymore. There’s just other places to go where you can be more satisfied.”

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