After months of discussion, state health leaders on Thursday unveiled a draft plan for who will be first in line for a coronavirus vaccine when one likely becomes available in scant quantities toward the end of this year or early next year.

Though several vaccine candidates have entered the final stage of clinical trials, there likely won’t be enough supply of any of them to vaccinate all Coloradans for months after they have been approved. So states, working with the federal government, must come up with plans for whom to prioritize.

Colorado’s plan attempts to balance the need to protect frontline health workers while also delivering vaccine doses to people most at risk for severe illness and to communities of color, which have been especially hard-hit by the virus. It is still a draft plan because everyone involved in making it acknowledges there is considerable uncertainty about how the next few months will proceed — no vaccines have yet completed their clinical trials or received official approval; the federal government has not yet announced its plan for a vaccine rollout; and it’s unknown how many doses of vaccine will be initially supplied or when more will become available.

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