Wealthy patients scramble for a vaccine: 'If I donate $25,000 ... would that help me?'

[Zorro]

Concierge doctor’s offices are stocking up with ultra-low temperature freezers and are being inundated with calls from well-heeled clients

They’re offering tens of thousands of dollars in cash, making their personal assistants pester doctors every day, and asking whether a five-figure donation to a hospital would help them jump the line.

The COVID-19 vaccine is here — and so are the wealthy people who want it first.

“We get hundreds of calls every single day,” said Dr. Ehsan Ali, who runs Beverly Hills Concierge Doctor. His clients, who include Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber, pay between $2,000 and $10,000 a year for personalized care. “This is the first time where I have not been able to get something for my patients.”

With the first doses in short supply, California has laid out a strict order of vaccinations based on need and risk: Healthcare workers and nursing home residents, then essential workers and those with chronic health conditions, then, finally, everyone else.

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/california/story/2020-12-18/wealthy-patients-scramble-covid-19-vaccine

[nattyice]

1. This might explain why states are receiving less than expected

[Demsrule86]

6. That explains why Trump is hoarding vaccine and not sending it out.

[Hugin]

7. Less supply raises demand raises the prices for gouging.

The vicious cycle of disaster capitalism.

[Irish_Dem]

2. Is $25K is the black market price for a single dose?

[Polybius]

3. For $25,000, they can have mine

I'll wait.

[Irish_Dem]

4. Is $25K is the black market price for a single dose?

I think the wealthy are getting the vaccine before the rest of us?

[Hugin]

5. This is panning out pretty much as I had expected it would...

Along socioeconomic and political lines.

The die was cast when the pandemic became politicized in a nation with a for-profit healthcare system.

Eh, either way, I'm in the last 15% to qualify.

[LaMouffette]

8. Ah, yes, the classic "Me first!" attitude of the rich raises its ugly head again.

I'm just shocked that blue states received any doses at all. I would have thought Trump would have figured out a way to get doses shipped just to the red states he likes, and then only if the (a) kissed his ass; (b) joined him in trying to overthrow the 2020 election; and (c) donated "bigly" to his 2024 election campaign.