Following the Supreme Court s decision last week, Minnesota s largest companies with operations in multiple states like Medtronic, 3M and Ecolab face decisions on employee health plans.
Smokers can now light up the vaccination hotlines in many states.
New Jersey, Mississippi, Pennsylvania and Virginia are registering smokers to get the coronavirus vaccine early, according to a health care think tank.
âThe goal is to get people at greatest risk,â said Jennifer Tolbert, director of state health reform at the California-based Kaiser Family Foundation. âBy targeting those individuals, you can hopefully reduce the chance of them ending up in the hospital with more severe cases of COVID and at greater risk of dying.â
The Centers for Disease Control and Preventionâs Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices said smokers should be vaccinated in Phase 1C, which includes people 65 to 74 years of age and those 16 to 64 with high-risk medical conditions. Phase 1A includes health care workers and long-term care facility residents, and Phase 1B includes people 75 or older and non-health care front line and essential workers.