Friday, January 8, 2021
The COVID Vaccine Priority List?
Earlier this week the Washington Post published this article, Wealthy donors received vaccines through Florida nursing home. According to the article, the "chief executive of MorseLife Health System, a high-end nursing home and assisted-living facility in West Palm Beach, Fla., [contacted] members of the board and major donors" and offered them the opportunity to get the COVID vaccine. This also "includ[ed] members of the Palm Beach Country Club, according to multiple people who were offered access, some of whom accepted it. The precise number of invitations, and how many may have also gone to non-donors, could not be learned." The article notes the confusion in Florida regarding the vaccination protocols that basically "highlights how the country’s patchwork approach to immunization against the coronavirus — leaving decisions about eligibility to state and local authorities as well as to individual providers —[and] is creating opportunities for facilities to provide access to well-connected people while thousands of others wait in line." The article also notes that those in charge took the position that they stayed within the protocols. The article mentions that a number of those offered the opportunity fell within the age group, but did not reside at the facility and concludes with information about the two views of what happened.
https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/elder_law/2021/01/circumventing-the-covid-vaccine-prioirity-list.html