JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – As Florida prepares for the first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to be distributed, there’s a push to get firefighters who deal with medical calls to the front of the line.
Right now firefighters who are also EMTs are not in Phase 1 of the vaccine plan like hospital workers are. Currently, they are in Phase 2.
Florida’s Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis is pushing to get firefighters bumped up to Phase 1.
“Our firefighters are also, 90% of them are EMT’s,” Patronis said. “90% of them are showing up at a person’s house, not knowing what that 911 call, not knowing what that person is asking them to do and not knowing what type of environment they’re in. All we’re saying is treat them the same way you treat our doctors and nurses.”
News4Jax also reached out to Randy Wyse with the Jacksonville Firefighter’s Union.
“We’re really that first line of healthcare out on the streets. We’re the ones diagnosing them, determining what’s wrong,” said Wyse.
He said all Jacksonville firefighters who are on the street are trained EMTs.
He said he supports firefighters who want to get the vaccine being allowed to in Phase 1.
“Like any healthcare worker, the exposure on the job but then taking it home to your families. We want to try to minimize that,” said Wyse.
NewsJ4ax has reached out to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the question of whether firefighter’s priority will be bumped up.
A CDC spokeswoman issued an emailed statement:
“ACIP, CDC’s independent vaccine advisory committee, traditionally develops vaccine recommendations that go to the CDC director for approval before becoming official CDC policy. The committee has been holding public meetings since June regarding COVID-19 vaccines and while it hasn’t voted on additional phases for COVID-19 vaccination beyond use of the initial doses, it’s likely to do so in the future.
Regarding essential works, the committee has been using CISA’s guidance on critical infrastructure that is available at https://www.cisa.gov/identifying-critical-infrastructure-during-covid-19. Until the committee has made recommendation it’s premature to say what CDC’s recommendations will be.”