Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, who is overseeing the equity of vaccine distribution for the White House, also said Friday that the pool of people available to administer vaccines will expand to include dentists, optometrists, paramedics, physician assistants and trained medical and health students
The government will also launch a federal website to show where available vaccine is and deploy tech teams to support city- and state-run systems for making appointments, Zients said.
Biden's May 1 deadline for eligibility "does not mean everyone will get a shot immediately," Zients cautioned, but he said there will be enough supply by the end of May for every adult American.
When states began to announce body mass index, known as BMI, would be a factor in determining early eligibility for COVID-19 vaccines, some who meet the requirement has expressed feelings of guilt.
"As someone who does have a high BMI and is considered by the medical field as obese, I felt a lot of complicated feelings about being a part of this group and once again being told that because of my weight, I'm unhealthy," Sydney Greene, a 24-year-old living in Austin, Texas, said.
Nirit Pisano, a licensed clinical psychologist and chief psychology officer at Cognovi Labs, said she is seeing an increase in "fat talk" that is wreaking havoc on self-esteem.
Still, Pisano advises people who are eligible but feeling apprehensive to "keep in mind the big picture" and "go out and get vaccinated."
"Realize (BMI) is just one piece ... that gives you access to this vaccine, which is an important part of protecting yourself," she said. "This is just one small item that happens to give you access here, but doesn't define the full picture of who you are."
– Sara M. Moniuszko
The restaurant industry was decimated in 2020, with nearly 2.5 million jobs lost and as many as 8 million chefs, servers and other restaurant workers laid off or furloughed, according to the National Restaurant Association. "Today, the heartbreak starts to heal," said Erika Polmar, executive director of the Independent Restaurant Coalition.
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