It’s like from a end-of-days-type movie. The wealthy are getting access to Coronavirus vaccine before they are entitled. This should be a crime. But many of those getting shots before many of their elderly constituents are politicians. And they won’t dare stand in the way of a potentially wealthy donor getting the vaccine:
Two New York real estate moguls are reportedly helping their wealthy friends and associates jump the line to receive vaccinations for the novel coronavirus.
According to the New York Post, brothers Bill and David S. Mack have “personally arranged for… their wealthy friends from Manhattan and the ritzy Palm Beach Country Club to get the COVID-19 vaccine at a Florida retirement home.”
According to the Post’s sources, the vaccine was administered at the Joseph L. Morse Health Center in Palm Beach, which is near the Palm Beach Country Club where many of the brothers’ friends are members
“They apparently made a list of people who could get the vaccine, who one can only assume are their wealthy friends and clients,” one source explained. “Supposedly, some people flew down in private jets from New York just for the vaccine, if they were lucky enough to be on the list the brothers made. It wasn’t just members of the Palm Beach Country Club who got the vaccine, but there were many club members who did.”
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 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: Health-care workers and nursing home residents, then essential workers and those with chronic health conditions, then, finally, everyone else.
And it’s not just wealthy individuals but wealthy nations that are unfairly getting access to vaccines before the poorest:
Lost among the jubilation of America’s vaccine rollout this week is an uncomfortable reality: The world’s poorest countries will have to wait months and possibly years to see any doses at all.
The U.S., Canada, Britain and the European Union have pre-ordered enough Covid-19 shots to inoculate their populations several times over, subject to regulatory approvals.
And, of course, the politicians will find a way to get to the front of the line:
While experts debated who in society should be first to get the vaccine — front-line workers, doctor, nurses, cops, firefighters, nursing homes, grocery store workers and so on — the politicians in Washington simply cut to the head of the line.
Their lives, you see, are more important than yours. They threw crumbs at the working poor — who are out of work because of shutdowns — while making sure they got paid, $174,000 plus bennies.
They also used their political privilege to also make certain that they got the vaccine before anyone else, including you. Forget you.
That is bad enough, but they added insult to injury when they pretended that they were taking the vaccine to make sure it was safe for everyone else.
U.S. Rep. Katherine Clark of Melrose became one of the first of the Massachusetts delegation to get the vaccine. After elbowing her way to the front of the lifeboat, Clarke said, “A vaccine has been made available to Congress because of the need for continuity of government operations. While I am no more deserving of the vaccine than anyone else, I want to demonstrate that coronavirus vaccines are safe and effective.”
The 99 Percenters 