Should firefighters get the COVID-19 vaccine sooner? NC insurance commissioner says yes

Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey is asking Gov. Roy Cooper to give firefighters and first responders a higher prioritization for receiving the COVID-19 vaccine.

He wrote to the governor last week, arguing that first responders should be treated the same as “frontline healthcare workers and other vulnerable populations.” Causey, who’s also the state fire marshal, noted that 225 firefighters across the state have been exposed to COVID-19 in their work, and one has died.

“Healthcare workers, including doctors and nurses, are rightly afforded the opportunity to work in a controlled environment with properly ventilated rooms and other protective measures,” Causey wrote. “First responders, operating in the pre-hospital environment, are not always provided these same protections.”

North Carolina’s current vaccination plan puts police and firefighters in Phase 2 alongside other “frontline workers in essential industries,” which also include construction workers and grocery store workers.

The state’s first shipment of vaccines will go to hospitals, and that might not be enough doses for all hospitals, Health and Human Services Secretary Mandy Cohen cautioned last week. But hospitals receiving the initial shipments “could include EMTs and paramedics who care for patients with COVID-19” in the list of health care workers who’ll receive vaccines first, according to Department of Health and Human Services spokewoman Kelly Haight Connor.

“As more vaccine becomes available, it will be distributed to more of the state’s hospitals and to our local health departments to focus on vaccinating high-risk health care workers,” she said in an email. “Long-term care staff and residents are also one of the first groups who will receive a vaccine. Other first responders with two or more chronic conditions that put them at high risk for complications as defined by the CDC will get the vaccine after these groups followed by those first responders without chronic conditions.”

This story was originally published December 7, 2020 at 3:59 PM with the headline "Should firefighters get the COVID-19 vaccine sooner? NC insurance commissioner says yes."