By Our Reporter
The Covid-19 vaccine could cost billions on the black market due to the link between rich and poor, experts are warning.
The much-criticized rollout by the Trump administration has laid the groundwork for a scenario in which the rich and the politically connected use their money and power to cut in line and get vaccinated before everyone else, they said.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has already threatened to impose fines of up to $1 million and revoke the licenses of doctors, nurses, and others who don’t follow state and federal vaccine distribution guidelines, which currently place a priority on inoculating front-line health care workers and nursing home residents.
There have been reports in Miami of big hospital donors getting the first crack at the vaccine and in New York of tycoons flying their friends down to Florida to get inoculated with doses earmarked for a retirement home.
And in Colorado, some teachers are crying foul after nurses and educators in wealthier public school districts and private schools got inoculated first.
“It’s a little frustrating that districts who already don’t have the same wealth accumulated around them were lower on the totem pole,” said a ninth grade teacher in Aurora Public Schools, one of the poorest in the Denver area, who asked not to be identified by name. “The districts that already were receiving a lot of support got this before districts that need more support.”
Arthur Caplan of New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine and one of the nation’s top bio-ethicists said the lament will likely be heard a lot more as the divide grows between vaccine haves and vaccine have-nots.
The development comes at a time when Ministry of health has announced 258 new COVID-19 cases and one death from results tested on 08 January 2021, bringing the cumulative confirmed cases to 37,554 and 301 deaths.
The breakdown of the new cases are: 258 contacts and alerts: Kampala (154) Luwero (26) Wakiso (26) Mukono (20) Jinja (8) Tororo (5) Kisoro (4) Lira (3) Kibuku (3) Mbarara (1) Mbale (1) Bukwo (1) Nebbi (1) Butaleja (1) Kapchorwa (1) Lamwo (1) Manafwa (1) Arua (1).
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