How Inequity Gets Built Into America’s Vaccination System

It’s not just the anti-vaxxers. Mutations are also happening in countries that don’t even have vaccines and will spread to countries that are vaccinating. And yes, this is being discussed and has always been discussed. The vaccine is not a life-long protection

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Today - March 1st - 40 days into the “First 100 days” and the current count is more than 75 million doses have been administered, reaching 15% of the total U.S. population,
The U.S. is currently administering over 1.7 million shots a day.
with the J&J vaccine coming on board - that should rise …
So by day 100 of “The first 100 days” the total should be well over 180 million vaccinated. - maybe even over 200 million …

There is not a thing any individual or state or local government can do about the supply of vaccines. that is on the companies and the federal government breaking down supply chain barriers.

What is vexing people and what federal, state, and local government have screwed up is the allocation system. To my knowledge, there is not a single jurisdiction in the country where there is a single allocation list–people ranked by priority (presumably according to risk, although that is a complicated concept)-- who are then informed when their turn is up and where they can get the vaccine. Instead, we have numerous allocation lists, some controlled by the state, some by counties, some by private pharmacies–CVS, Walgreens, RiteAid, grocery stores, etc-- and some by medical provider systems. Navigating all the possible ways one can get on a list, and check if supply matches need sometimes on a location-by-location basis is maddeningly complicated, inherently unfair, vulnerable to political manipulation, and entirely unnecessary.

The supply is what it is. How we ration the supply intelligently and efficiently is within the control of the institutions that are supposed to serve the public interest.