I am a university student and recently learned that my city will open vacancies on the Ministry of Health website so that anyone can be vaccinated if there is an excess of vaccines. We are still in the first phase of vaccination, but if I consulted the vaccination site frequently, in theory I would get a consultation.
As I am a healthy young man, who is not an essential worker or at risk, should I wait to be vaccinated in the hope that someone at greater risk or essential can take over? Or should I continue to visit that site and take the dose as soon as it appears? I’m not taking someone else’s place, am I? Ben, Montana
With anything perishable – whether it’s a head of lettuce or a defrosted box of Covid-19 vaccines – you may experience excess and deterioration amid a general shortage. Pfizer’s minimum vaccine order is a tray with about 1,200 doses; as soon as the bottles start to thaw, they should be used in five days. With all vaccines authorized, a bottle, once opened, must be used within six hours – for Johnson & Johnson, it is two hours at room temperature. Each bottle of Pfizer contains up to six doses. Johnson & Johnson, which has a minimum order of 100 doses, places five doses in a bottle; Soon, Moderna will put 14 doses in each bottle.
The point is that vaccines do not come as “loose”. Vaccination sites may erroneously assess the number of enrollments and, even if everything is planned correctly, there are sometimes absences. Even when a location has a waiting list of qualified recipients, there will be occasional cases when a vaccine will go to waste, unless eligibility rules are lifted.
Perhaps the question is not whether you would be taking someone else’s place, but who you would be taking. I think of the verse that we apparently owe to the 19th century English lawyer and canny Charles Bowen:
The rain, it rains in the fair
And also about the unfair guy.
But mainly in the fair, because
The unjust steals the umbrella of the just.
In a situation where expired doses of vaccine will be offered to all participants – so that they are not simply wasted – you have no reason to think that the dose you avoid will go to someone in greatest need; if those who are concerned with justice hesitate, the dose can simply go to those who are not so concerned, assuming it goes to anyone. There will always be a trade-off between vaccinating the country quickly and fine-tuning the implementation to reflect the risk profile of each person. If a sporadic approach for all participants is the best way to avoid missed doses, it is not unfair and you are not wrong to participate in it.
There will always be a trade-off between vaccinating the country quickly and fine-tuning the implementation to reflect the risk profile of each person.
There is one other thing to keep in mind. Although it is very unlikely, at your age, to be seriously ill with Covid-19, you can still spread the virus. In fact, it is not uncommon for people who never experience severe symptoms of the disease to transmit the virus. Available evidence suggests that, once vaccinated, transmission is less likely, perhaps much less likely. As with the use of a mask, vaccination helps to protect others, just like you. It is much better for a dose to go to your arm than to waste.
I live in a state that prioritizes vaccination for people over 65 and anyone over 16 with chronic health conditions. As elsewhere, the deployment was not as smooth: it was reported that last weekend, when the county announced that it had 9,000 appointments available, it received more than 30,000 simultaneous calls. There is no need for “proof of chronic condition”, and our state has made it clear that it is relying on the honor system for those seeking vaccination.
I am 44 years old and I am reasonably healthy. I have been overweight since childhood. Sometimes, in my adult life, I have been much heavier than I am currently, which is hanging right on the border between “overweight” and “obese” (rated as a BMI of 30 or higher; I’m around 29 right now ). My state considers anyone classified as “obese” as a priority vaccination group. Is it ethical for me to double the definition of “chronic condition” and, in theory, jump ahead of someone else who may be in a much higher risk category? Retained name
Are you asking if you can lie to get vaccinated faster. My answer is: No. But there is an interesting question that you did not ask. Would it be okay with a binge eating to raise your BMI to 30? In this scenario, you would not be prevaricating when signing up for an appointment. Certainly, however, you would still be abusing the system. Any criteria that can be hacked in this way are problematic for that very reason. To be sure, the BMI limits that states use (in some are 30; in others 40) are inherently arbitrary: a study in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences last fall suggested that the hospitalization rate for Covid-19 increases with our BMI in a linear fashion, starting with those only modestly overweight. This suggests that maintaining a healthy weight instead of increasing it may be the best option.
I worked at farmer’s markets in New For many years in York City, but since the pandemic struck, I transitioned to full-time communication work at a church (producing its new live broadcast, among other things) and put it on the market just one day a week. . As a market worker, I am recently qualified for Covid’s vaccine. I want to be vaccinated as soon as possible, for my own safety and for the good of everyone, but in fact my work and my lifestyle allow me to be well isolated and protected from infections. In addition to my obvious advantages – or rather, privileges – of being highly computer literate, fluent in English and having time to navigate the Byzantine vaccination system, I feel that my limited exposure as an essential worker a day a week makes my claim to doubtful vaccination. I want this vaccine to be launched ethically and, ideally, privilege will not play a role in this. But is eligibility pure and simple? Damon, New York
What is important is try to remove barriers to vaccination – including those imposed by the lack of access to transportation, internet or English. Enlisting churches and other community organizations can help reach the city’s underprivileged and sometimes hesitant people with the vaccine. In fact, your work with the church can enable you to help here. Once a reasonable system is in place, however, eligibility is, in fact, eligibility. You are not proposing to use any internal connection to skip the line. You will take advantage of your skills and knowledge, but you are unlikely to qualify for postal code-restricted FEMA vaccination sites that are specifically targeted at the city’s vulnerable communities. All of this to say that your commendable concern for justice does not mean that you should reject the offered umbrella.