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As frontline healthcare workers around the country line up for the first COVID-19 vaccines, some providers treating the sickest patients, including emergency and critical care physicians, are asking a vexing question: Shouldn't their spouses also be prioritized?
If they're not at least 75, or they don't have serious medical issues, physician spouses aren't in phase 1a or 1b of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices' recommendations for vaccination priority. They might be considered under 1c, but that may be weeks if not months away.
Denny Amundson, DO, a 70-year-old pulmonary intensivist in California, thinks spouses probably should be moved up the priority list -- and the sad ordeal he and his wife have endured makes his case.