Yes I know that is probably why but is my logic off?? If we vaccinate the workers in the nursing homes and they continue to wear masks do the residents need to be priority number 1 after health care workers? I would much rather see the senior residents who live in the community be vaccinated. I know that I want it because of my situation but still.
The decision to vaccinate residents comes from the advice of the CDC. What that is based on I have no idea, so I can't really say if your logic is flawed.
If the past is any indicator, what the CDC recommends now will probably end up changing. So who knows it may turn out you are right all along.
I listened in on the CDC meeting; CNN had it on live feed. The logic they were using was that as staff move in and out of the community they were more likely to act as asymptomatic carriers, thus inoculating them first cuts down on the probability of transmission from outside the premises. Participants also pointed out that many care homes are still experiencing shortages of PPE, and that the sooner the staff are vaccinated, the less PPE will be needed for non-clinical interactions such as serving meals and cleaning rooms.
There was a huge discussion about the necessity of spreading staff inoculations for each shift over at least a 4-day period (& preferably over a longer period), because of the probability that workers will miss at least one work day due to the side-effects of the vaccine. Other than that caution, however, the doctors on the committee thought that it made logistical and financial sense to administer the vaccine to both staff and residents at the same sessions; but again, reiterated that no facility should attempt to vaccinate everyone during a single session.
I am guessing that the natural isolation of most aging-in-place senior citizens is what is pushing them a bit down the list as a group. As a general rule even in healthy times, they tend to spend more hours at home alone than almost any other segment of society, and their interactions tend to most often be within certain predictable parameters: doctor's office staff, supermarket staff, restaurant staff, and their own extended families. If the occupational groups in that list are vaccinated, most of them will gain a margin of earlier protection that way.
I think that the key question appears to be "Which groups are most likely to contract it in the workplace and pass it on to strangers?" -- which makes sense, because that not only affects the physical health of the community, but also commerce, thus becoming in essence a bit of a two-for-one benefit at the start. It also has a tiny bit of compensatory flavor, in that the majority of essential workers are not typically well-paid, but have been taking outsize risk with their health in order to keep the country running for the rest of us -- that we owe them first dibs as a form of bonus compensation for that risk.