Full SDMAC Committee Makes Phase 1B Recommendations
This morning the full State Disaster Medical Advisory Committee (SDMAC) reviewed the recommendations of the SDMAC Vaccine Subcommittee for Phase 1B vaccination priority. The Committee slightly modified the recommendations and forwarded them on as a recommendation to the Secretary of the Department of Health Services (DHS) for her final approval and publication.
DHS Assistant Deputy Secretary Lisa Olson thanked the Committee and the Subcommittee for their work in reviewing the public comments and preparing the recommendations, and shared that the Secretary’s Office is planning to take the weekend to review their recommendations and publish a final guidance for those Wisconsinites who will be eligible to be vaccinated under Phase 1B early next week.
DHS has previously announced two groups that have been already approved for Phase 1B:
- police and fire personnel (who became eligible on January 18th)
- Wisconsinites 65 and older (will be eligible on Monday, January 25th or immediately if a vaccinator has concluded vaccinating previously eligible populations)
Of note in the Committee’s recommended changes/discussion:
- As it relates to sub prioritization within Phase 1B, if necessary because of limited vaccine supply, Education and Childcare were added as an “Employment” sector that consideration should be given to for prioritization. The subcommittee did not include an “Employment” sector consideration in their recommendations. The Committee discussion around this focused on getting kids back into a better learning environment as soon as possible and the positive impacts this will have on their families as well staffing at the schools.
- The Committee maintained “Utility Employees” and “Non-frontline health care personnel” in their recommendation to the Secretary. These were originally forwarded as minority opinions from the subcommittee, but were in the final document presented and approved by the Committee.
- The committee did not include those with high-risk medical conditions below age 65 and did not augment the public transit worker definition to include ride share services and airline staff, both of which were also minority opinions of the subcommittee.
The SDMAC Vaccine Subcommittee will begin discussion of recommendations for Phase 1C at their meeting tomorrow morning, Friday January 22nd, at 7:00 AM (link to meeting page).
Below is a current tracking chart we created of where Wisconsin is at in comparison to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in comparison to the recommendations that were made by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) on December 20th.
Phase | ACIP Recommendation | SDMAC Recommendations | WI Enacted |
1A | Health care personnel and long-term care facility residents |
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1B |
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1C |
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2 |
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Link to ACIP recommendations; https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm695152e2.htm