As part of its coalition work with the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD), ANCOR signed onto a letter to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) to highlight the disability community’s priorities surrounding the eventual roll-out of a COVID-19 vaccine. The letter reflects CCD’s COVID-19 vaccine allocation priorities statement, which ANCOR also joined. While a COVID-19 vaccine does not yet exist at this time, these pro-active communications seek to ensure people with disabilities are not overlooked in the distribution process when a vaccine is developed.
Specifically, the letter urged ACIP to:
“1. Include all residents of congregate facilities in Phase 1 of allocation
2. Protect the civil rights of people with disabilities in allocation decisions
3. Ensure that the physical distribution and administration of the vaccine is accessible to people with disabilities.”
The letter continues to state: “In addition to protecting people with disabilities in allocation decisions, we also urge ACIP to promote a distribution plan that is accessible to people with disabilities. On September 9, we wrote to Roger Severino, Director of the Office for Civil Rights at the US Department of Health and Human Services outlining key civil rights concerns in vaccine allocation and distribution.
We encourage a ‘no wrong door’ approach to vaccination. The vaccine should be available at all regular sources of care, through public health agencies, and at non-traditional sites of care which may be needed to reach underserved populations that face disparities in access to care.”
ACIP is expected to release its own vaccine framework separate from the framework issued by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, on which ANCOR also commented.
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