Who’s on first?
Living in the United States, I like to believe that I am of free will and that I get to choose what happens to me in my life. But really, do we have free will? We state, “it’s a free country,” but is it really? I know that things like “right to life” and “right to die” are big hot buttons in our country. There are legal battles over both abortion and medically assisted suicide. So the laws determine who and if someone has an abortion as well as who and when someone can end their own life.
A few weeks ago during my Buddhist meditation meetings, a conversation started on vaccine dosing. Now that vaccines are approved by the FDA and dosages are being delivered, who gets to choose who gets the vaccine first? Who gets to choose who lives or dies?
This last sentence may seem overly dramatic. I mean just because you do or don’t get the vaccine doesn’t determine if you will live or die. I can tell you the end of that story. Everyone dies. The vaccine may or may not slow the arrival of your impending death. Some people will die sooner than others. The vaccine should ensure that you do not get any of the symptoms of COVID. These symptoms can cause mild illness, severe illness, major health issues, and even death. So getting the vaccine will be like wearing a giant piece of armor that will shield you from these possible issues. That sounds great! Many people are eager to get the vaccine.
That said, there are close to 330 million people in the United States. How do we decide who will be the first to get the vaccine? There are a few we can currently eliminate in getting the vaccine altogether. Right now, children are not getting the vaccine. Minimal testing has been done on children and we want to make sure child vaccinations are safe before administering the vaccine to them. Additionally, we know that children are less affected by COVID, so holding off on their dosage is less of a concern at the moment. Some people will have allergies to the vaccine based on their allergy history. Some people may have autoimmune issues that will keep them from getting the vaccine. Still there are a lot of people in line for the COVID vaccine. So who’s first?
Initially, it sounded pretty clear. Those who are medical workers are going to get the vaccine first. So doctors, nurses, dental workers, etc. CMAs in Senior Homes, I would imagine. But who is next? I’m hearing the elderly come next. They seem to be the most vulnerable to the illness, the most likely to die. Then we would vaccinate front line workers, people who work in grocery stores, restaurants, stores that are required to be open. But wait? Is this the right order?
Apparently these decisions are being made state by state. Here in Utah it seems that medical workers, people who have to touch bodies for their jobs, and teachers will be going first. Then it is proposed to be more of an age first order. So if you are older or if you are in a retirement community, you are going to get your vaccine first. During our meditation meeting conversation, one of the people who is older and living in a retirement community questioned her getting the vaccine first. She said that she was already isolating and finding isolation to be tolerable. She said, why don’t we put someone else in front of her, a front line worker who’s cashiering at the supermarket, someone who will stimulate the economy more often when they feel safer going out? This woman wasn’t going anywhere. Plus, she said she can accept death. She may not want to die tomorrow, but she’s had her share of life, while someone younger who has to work may be more vulnerable to the disease and has a lot of life left.
I started to think about her choice. I think she’s right. At least she’s right for her. But if she gives up her vaccine, how much closer does that get the person behind the register at Smith’s to the front of the vaccine line? Not much at all.
When COVID was first rippling through the community, we recognized that those who were more financially strapped were more likely to be impacted by the virus. They often worked in places that required them to go to work every day: grocery stores, gas stations, restaurants (for takeout), healthcare facilities, or senior care facilities. Additionally these folks might need to take public transportation to get to work. Wouldn’t these be the people who require vaccines first? Why wouldn’t we want to treat them before we treated the elderly?
I don’t want to play god. I’m against capital punishment; I don’t believe I have the right to decide who can live or who can die. I don’t think I have a right to put a value on one person’s life vs. another’s. At the same time I feel anxious about inoculating the elderly over inoculating those who leave their homes every day to do the jobs that keep our country going. So how do we decide who goes first? Can you immunize everyone at once?
Unfortunately, it seems that we can’t. So far, the efforts to inoculate in the US have been slow. At the time that I write, the US has provided a little over 7 million inoculations. While that number seems high, there were over 22 million doses distributed and the expectation from the Trump Administration was that 20 million vaccinations would have occurred by the end of 2020. The immunizations seem to be going rather slowly. When earlier projections claimed that we could have the country immunized by the end of the summer, is that even feasible now? Additionally, we don’t have enough vaccines to cover everyone. So when will that grocery clerk at Smith’s get their vaccine? What about the bus driver who brought the clerk to work? I am also reading that some non-essential medical staff (med students, for example) are getting vaccinated at some facilities even though they aren’t on the “qualified” lists. At some vaccination facilities, IDs weren’t even being checked. So it’s possible some “unqualified” people were getting vaccinated.
I guess I am wondering where our community responsibilities lie. Should my state leadership be making the decisions on who should get the vaccine or should the people in line for the vaccine be making the decisions? I appreciate my senior friend who says she shouldn’t be going first. But those feelings may not be shared by her neighbor. Her neighbor might feel that they deserve the vaccination because they are more vulnerable as an older person. And her neighbor’s children might feel their mom deserves the vaccine because, well, I don’t get to choose when their mom dies. It’s all making my head hurt.
