The Trump administration expanded COVID-19 vaccine eligibility recommendations to include anyone over the age of 65 on Tuesday, but experts warn that without strategies to ensure women frontline workers are immunized, progress could be stalled.

US states might run into roadblocks when trying to vaccinate women who are non-health care frontline workers, according to the nonprofit news organization The 19th. Structural and logistical barriers may prevent women who work in grocery stores, retail, education, and child care from getting the vaccine.

Nearly two-thirds of frontline workers are women, and accommodations for hourly workers are imperative to immunization efforts in women-dominated industries. Transportation to vaccination sites for low-income women and child care for mothers can make all the difference.

“It’s at the intersection of gender and income advantage and the differentials in transportation and ways of life, that differentiate literally between better-off neighborhoods and further-off ones,” Ruth Faden, a bioethicist at Johns Hopkins University, told The 19th.

Paid time off for women who come down with minor symptoms after the second vaccine injection and vaccination appointments during non-work hours are also necessary.

Considerations for hourly frontline workers should not be an afterthought, according to Helen Keipp Talbot, an infectious diseases associate professor at Vanderbilt University and a member of the Federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

Read the full article about COVID-19 vaccine challenges for women by Leah Rodriguez at Global Citizen.