Progress / Update COVID Vaccine — Need Help

Good morning Team Lucas - we need help connecting with officials at ACIP / CDC in Atlanta, GA. If you know anyone senior in the organization or who is involved in these meetings like this one, where they update policy please let us know. We believe after diligent research that the terms “caregivers”, “congregated spaces” and “critical illnesses” should apply to caregivers of pediatric patients like Lucas, not just senior living populations, and not just professional healthcare workers who get paid to do what we do every hour of every day of every week.

After much research, we made some progress on creating awareness with PA State officials yesterday in the department of health. I had an almost hour long phone call with a government official, amazing person yesterday. She 100% agreed that caregivers of at risk pediatric populations had been overlooked in Phase 1a of the COVID distribution. This is going to be brought up at the meeting with Senior Officials at the department today.

Our goal is to increase awareness around caregivers of pediatric patients with life threatening illnesses. To date the term “caregiver” has mostly been associated with adult populations and professional caregivers. In pediatrics, organ transplants, bone marrow transplant and NICU patients, have caregivers that need to be on the team. If either parent, protector of helpless children gets COVID then that is not only a health risk, but it creates extra stress on the healthcare system.

I know there are many people with connections that read this blog, and we have a compelling case that this has been overlooked.

This link (same as above) has several authors associated with it. ACIP stands for The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

IF you are a parent, you know that nothing is more dear to us than our children. Parents that are inpatient with children facing critical illnesses are risks that can easily be treated right now.

There is going to be a Change.org petition sent out later today or this week that can be signed and directed to leadership at the CDC / ACIP, etc.

Please check your network and help us get a meeting with a senior official at ACIP so that we can explain how pediatric populations and their caregivers have been unintentionally overlooked by the government.

Final note. None of us have been here before. Its a pandemic. If you work at a healthcare institution, “we have never done that before” as it applies to administering a vaccine to the general population might be technically accurate, but NONE OF US HAVE DONE THIS BEFORE. Americans step up, that;s what happened during WWII, you had everyone chipping in to defeat the enemy. If a hospital has a cold chain facility that can handle the vaccines, then it should help vaccinate everyone on a risk / tiered system. This is all hands on deck.

Pediatric patients under 16 cannot be vaccinated, but if you can treat the caregiver you help the family and the institution potentially save beds. Saving beds saves lives.

Help us save lives by helping me get a meeting with a senior official at ACIP.