US panel: 1st vaccines to health care workers, nursing homes

NEW YORK (AP) — An influential government advisory panel says health care workers and nursing home residents should be at the front of the line when the first coronavirus vaccine shots become available. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted 13-1 on Tuesday to recommend priority be given to those groups in the first days of any coming vaccination program, when doses are expected to be very limited. The two priority groups encompass around 24 million Americans out of a U.S. population of about 330 million. Current estimates project that no more than 20 million doses of each vaccine will be available by the end of 2020. And each product requires two doses.