![]() Hospitals, clinics and vaccination sites have explained away bad behavior by saying they didn’t want to waste unused vaccines. Those without a child or grandchild to help secure an appointment could be out of luck. ![]() It might be theoretically possible to sign up by phone, but by the time you get through, the newly released appointments may be gone. Pity the rule-followers: Many older Americans who are not tech-savvy or lack internet access have been unable to get slots. On screening forms, people checked the boxes needed to get a vaccination appointment and in some places were immunized even after their duplicity was discovered. Health officials and private doctors tipped off friends about when new vaccine doses would be released. People offered donations in exchange for vaccinations. Politicians and their spouses - sometimes former spouses - got vaccines. ![]() Therapists who were teleworking claimed eligibility. Once random people working remotely got shots, those outside medical centers played whatever cards they had, too. “Once you’ve lost public confidence in the fairness of the process, it undermines willingness to follow the rules,” he said. What Caplan called “unfair priority” left him “incredibly irritated” ethics were often absent from the algorithm. “From soup to nuts, the whole thing has fallen apart,” said Arthur Caplan, one of the country’s leading medical ethicists. That behavior set a precedent for the national chaos that followed. (See related: Want A COVID-19 Vaccine? You Might Qualify, Depending On Where You Work) In their vaccine rollout, many of those were not thinking about their communities, only about themselves. Many hospitals pay no taxes because the care they provide benefits their communities. Some of those immunized were at the upper end of the medical income totem pole, people who had sat out the pandemic at country homes. They vaccinated radiologists who were reading films at home. They offered vaccines to psychiatrists who were seeing their patients on Zoom. It was pretty clear whom the agency had in mind for “health care personnel”: those who deal directly with patients, including doctors, nurses, technicians, janitors and the people who deliver meals, along with those who might come into contact with the virus, like security guards and laundry staff, as part of their jobs.īut many hospitals interpreted the recommendation broadly, inoculating their entire staff - public relations departments, administrators, programmers, laboratory scientists and, sometimes, their boards. When the vaccine was released in December, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that health care personnel and nursing home residents receive the first doses. But some also have behaved selfishly during the vaccine rollout. Of course, hospitals have performed heroics during the pandemic - turning orthopedic wards into covid intensive care units, canceling elective surgeries, bringing retired health care workers back to help, all the while losing thousands of staff members to the virus. That’s in part because, desperate to end their own pandemic nightmare, many of our most respected institutions and politicians have behaved badly. ![]() It will take more than “more people, more places, more supply” to end the Darwinian competition and restore confidence and order. To eliminate this knock-out-your-neighbor race to score a vaccine, the administration needs to find ways to build trust in the system. Still, by all estimates, the demand for vaccines will far exceed the supply for months to come.įor weeks, Americans have watched those who are well connected, wealthy or crafty “ jump the line” to get a vaccine, while others are stuck, endlessly waiting on hold to get an appointment, watching sign-up websites crash or loitering outside clinics in the often-futile hope of getting a shot. The Biden administration’s much-needed national strategy to end the covid-19 pandemic includes plans to remedy the chaotic vaccination effort with “ more people, more places, more supply.” The Federal Emergency Management Agency will open more vaccination sites, the government will buy more doses, and more people will be immunized.
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