ATA Petitions CDC to Include Interpreters

Following the release of the U.S. COVID-19 Vaccination Program recommendations, ATA petitioned the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to explicitly include on-site medical interpreters among the listed examples of health care personnel eligible for Phase 1 vaccinations. Twenty other organizations co-signed the ATA letter.

Robert R. Redfield, M.D.
Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
1600 Clifton Road
Atlanta, GA 30329

Dear Dr. Redfield,

The undersigned organizations, representing spoken and signed language interpreters, language service companies, and language access advocates, write to urge the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to explicitly include on-site medical interpreters among the listed examples of health care personnel eligible for Phase 1 vaccinations, and to include on-site interpreters in other settings (community interpreting, educational interpreting, state and local government offices, court and interpreters in legal or administrative law settings) among “other essential workers” per the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). We note that these front-line personnel are not included in either the CDC guidance.

Click to read complete letter.