Giving Compass' Take:
- Although vaccinating colleges' frontline healthcare workers is a priority, this article says that colleges' non-healthcare employees may have early access to the COVID-19 vaccine in some states.
- What role can funders play in ensuring that colleges have and make use of access to a COVID-19 vaccine?
- Read why college and university campus coronavirus outbreaks are and were inevitable.
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States get to decide how they distribute the vaccine. However, they are expected to follow guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which calls for prioritizing healthcare and essential frontline workers along with residents of long-term care facilities and older adults.
Those who work in education, including teachers and support staff, are considered essential frontline workers in a CDC advisory committee's latest recommendations. That could include certain college employees, said Anita Barkin, co-chair of the American College Health Association's COVID-19 Task Force.
But variation among states' vaccine distribution plans has created a "roll-out labyrinth," a recent analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation explains.
College instructors teaching in-person in New York are eligible for the vaccine now, according to the state's distribution plan. South Dakota is including "teachers and other school/college staff" among its early distribution groups, according to its latest vaccine availability outlook.
Read the full article about COVID-19 vaccine for college workers by Hallie Busta at Higher Education Dive.