KFF: “On December 1, 2020, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC), issued an initial recommendation, adopted by the CDC director, that health care personnel and residents of long-term care facilities should be the first to be offered a COVID-19 vaccine once it is authorized or approved by the FDA.. The ACIP recommendation recognizes that health care workers, who are at higher risk of exposure to people with COVID-19, are essential for preserving health care capacity during the pandemic. Further, it recognizes that long-term care residents are at high risk of serious illness if infected with the virus and account for 40% of all COVID-19 deaths. States have the authority to make their own allocation decisions, although most will likely follow the ACIP guidelines for the initial priority groups. This analysis provides new national and state-level estimates of the number of health care workers and long-term care residents who are expected to be part of the group first in line to receive the COVID-19 vaccine to gain insight into how this initial priority population varies across states. These estimates are based on our analysis of the 2019 American Community Survey (ACS) and Certification and Survey Provider Enhanced Reports (CASPER) data…”