I’m a college student, and I recently learned that my city is going to open places on the Department of Health website for anyone to be vaccinated if there is a surplus of vaccinations. We are still in the first phase of vaccination, but if I were to check the vaccination website regularly, I could in theory make an appointment.
Since I am a healthy, young person who is not an essential worker or who has a risk, should I wait to be vaccinated in the hope that someone with a greater risk or more essential can take the place? Or should I go look at that website 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 salad head or a thawed carton of Covid-19 vaccines – you may have too much and spoil amid a general deficiency. The minimum Pfizer vaccine order is a tray with approximately 1,200 doses; once the vials thaw, they should be used within five days. With all the authorized vaccines, once opened, a vial must be used within six hours – for Johnson & Johnson’s it is two hours at room temperature. Each Pfizer vial contains up to six doses. Johnson & Johnson, which has a minimum order of 100 doses, places five doses in a vial; Moderna will soon be placing 14 doses in each vial.
The point is that vaccines are not ‘loosies’. Vaccination sites can misjudge the number of reports, and even if everything is properly planned, there are sometimes no showers. Even when a website has a list of qualified recipients, there will occasionally be cases where a vaccine is destroyed unless the eligibility rules are suspended.
Perhaps the question is not whether you will take someone else’s place, but whose place you will take. I think of the verse we seem to owe to the 19th-century English jurist and white Charles Bowen:
The rain, it rains on the righteous
And also on the unfair fella.
But mainly on the righteous, because
The unrighteous steal the righteous’s umbrella.
In a situation where outdated doses of vaccine will be offered – otherwise it will just go to waste – you have no reason to think that the dose you are avoiding will go to someone in greater need; if those dealing with justice can make it go away, the dose can simply go to those who are not so worried, assuming it goes to anyone. There will always be a compromise between the country inoculating quickly and the fine-tuning of the implementation to reflect everyone’s risk profile. If a sporadic approach is the best way for everyone to avoid wasted doses, it is not unfair, and you are not wrong to take part in it.
There will always be a compromise between the country inoculating quickly and the fine-tuning of the implementation to reflect everyone’s risk profile.
There is one more thing to keep in mind. Although you are very unlikely at your age to become seriously ill with Covid-19, you can still spread it. In fact, it is not uncommon for people who never show severe symptoms of the disease to transmit the virus. The available evidence suggests that once you are vaccinated, the transmission is less likely, perhaps much less likely. As with wearing a mask, it also helps to protect others as well as you if you are vaccinated. It is much better that a dose goes in your arm than in the trash.
I live in a state that prioritizes vaccinations for people over 65 and everyone over 16 with chronic health conditions. As elsewhere, implementation was less than smooth: It is reported that last weekend, when the country announced that 9,000 appointments were available, more than 30,000 simultaneous calls were received. No ‘proof of chronic condition’ is needed, and our state has made it clear that it relies on the system of honor for those in need of vaccination.
I am 44 years old and fairly healthy. I have been overweight since childhood. Sometimes in my adult life I was much heavier than I am at present, hovering on the border between “overweight” and “obese” (classified as a BMI of 30 or higher; I am about 29 right now). My state considers everyone classified as “obese” to be the priority group for vaccinations. Is it ethical for me to bend the definition of ‘chronic condition’ and theoretically jump in front of someone else in a much higher risk category? Withhold name
You ask if you can lie to be vaccinated faster. My answer is: No. But there’s an interesting question you did not ask. Would it be good to have an appetite to increase your BMI to 30? In this scenario, you will not feel monetary when applying for an appointment. However, you will surely abuse the system. Any criterion that can be hacked in this way is problematic for this very reason. To be sure, the BMI thresholds used by states (in some it is 30; in others 40) are inherently arbitrary: A study in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences last fall suggested that the rate of hospitalization for Covid -19 increase with our BMI in a linear fashion, starting with those who are only modestly overweight. This suggests that it may be better if you maintain a healthy weight rather than gain it.
I worked at the farmers market in New City of York for a long time, but since the pandemic took place, I switched to full-time communication work at a church (which, among other things, delivers their new live stream) and only put on the market one day a week. As a market worker, I am eligible for the Covid vaccine. I want to be vaccinated as soon as possible, for my own safety and for the benefit of all, but in reality, my work and lifestyle enable me to remain reasonably isolated and safe from infection. Aside from my obvious advantages – or rather: privileges – that I am very computer literate, fluent in English and have the time to navigate through the Byzantine vaccination system, I feel that my limited exposure as an essential worker of one day a week makes my claim to vaccination doubtful. I want this vaccine to be rolled out in an ethical way, and ideally privilege will not play a role in it. But is suitability simple and straightforward? Damon, New York
What is important is to try to remove barriers to vaccination – including those who do not have access to transport, the internet or English. Involving churches and other community organizations can help reach the city’s underserved and sometimes vaccinated population. In fact, with the church you can help yourself to help here. However, once a reasonable system is in place, it is eligible. You do not suggest using indoor connections to jump the line. You will have the benefits of your skills and abilities, but you are unlikely to qualify for the FEMA vaccination sites with zip codes specifically targeted at the vulnerable communities of the city. All of this means that your commendable concern for justice does not mean that you should reject the umbrella on offer.