Straight From The Kindergarten Playbook: Hundreds Try To Jump Line
In Rhode Island, a special link given to health workers to register for vaccinations was shared with others. And a high-end nursing home in West Palm Beach, Fla., has offered vaccines to board members and those who made generous donations to the facility.
Boston Globe:
Hundreds Have Tried To Cut To The Front Of The COVID-19 Vaccine Line
With only enough doses available to vaccinate about 1.5 percent of the state’s population against COVID-19 each week, Rhode Island health officials have been working to prioritize vaccinating those at highest risk first. Several hundred people have already tried to cut in line anyway. The line-jumpers were caught this week, after health officials realized that a special link given to employers for their workers to register for vaccinations was shared with others, said Alysia Mihalakos, the co-lead of the state’s COVID-19 mass vaccination workgroup and chief of Health’s Center for Emergency Preparedness and Response. She didn’t identify the employers. (Milkovits, 1/5)
The Washington Post:
MorseLife In West Palm Beach Provided Coronavirus Vaccine To Donors And Country Club Members
MorseLife Health System, a high-end nursing home and assisted-living facility in West Palm Beach, Fla., has made scarce coronavirus vaccines — provided through a federal program intended for residents and staff of long-term-care facilities — available not just to its residents but to board members and those who made generous donations to the facility, including 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. (Stanley-Becker and Boburg, 1/5)
Chicago Tribune:
Some Early Doses Of COVID-19 Vaccine Meant For Health Care Workers Go To Researchers Working From Home
University of Chicago researcher Sarah Cobey has spent nearly a year studying the spread of COVID-19, but she was still surprised when her employer offered to vaccinate her against the virus. An associate professor of ecology and evolution, Cobey does not work in a clinical setting and has no exposure to patients. But University of Chicago Medicine has included her and several thousand other remote or off-site employees in its distribution of vaccines intended for health care workers. (Mahr, 1/6)
In other news —
Chicago Tribune:
Doctors Face Threats For Sharing Vaccine Information, Advice
The first troll Dr. Shikha Jain encountered was angry about vaccines. The person responded a few years ago to Jain’s tweet about getting a flu vaccine with a message criticizing her appearance and telling the doctor she obviously didn’t know anything about medicine. (Bowen, 1/6)
USA Today:
FBI Warns Of COVID-Related Fraud Schemes As Vaccines Distributed Across The Country
For the past year, federal law enforcement agencies have received tens of thousands of complaints of fraud tied to the coronavirus pandemic. More than 100 cases have been prosecuted, and authorities are expecting this number to rise as states continue to rollout vaccines. "We've been concerned about fraud schemes regarding the vaccine as soon as the vaccine went from an idea to reality … The one thing that we've learned throughout this pandemic is that when there's money to be made, criminals will figure out how to do it," said FBI Financial Crimes Section Chief Steven Merrill. (Phillips, 1/4)