At a number of Southern California concierge offices, doctors say they have received calls from their wealthy clients wondering if they can have early access to the extremely limited supply of vaccine doses in exchange for a financial contribution to a hospital or charity.
Dr. Jeff Toll, whose boutique internal medicine practice has admission privileges at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, said a patient offered to donate $ 25,000 to the hospital in exchange for an early vaccination of the vaccine. Toll’s practice offers a well-trodden clientele, which includes executives and entertainment personalities, but the doctor said he tells his patients that they too must wait, because the first round of vaccines is distributed to those most in need of protection.
Earlier this week, California received 327,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine, administering the first photos to front-line health workers battling the virus that has caused more than 22,000 deaths nationwide since the beginning of the pandemic.
“I think one of the hard things is that the doctors who take care of these high-powered people can say you don’t have to wait,” Toll said. “These people don’t usually have to wait.”
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Toll said his practice has been applied to the state of California to become a vaccine distribution center for his customers and has already bought special ultra-cold freezers pending storage of Pfizer vaccine ampoules.
“They wanted yesterday”
Dr. David Nazarian, from my Concierge in Beverly Hills, said some of his A-list clients are contacting him, saying that money is not an object if it helps them get the vaccine early.
“They wanted her yesterday,” Nazarian said. “We will comply with the rules, but we will do everything we can to secure and distribute the vaccine when it is available to us.”
Southern California has seen an unprecedented increase in new COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations in recent weeks, with the capacity of intensive care beds hospitalized at 0%, and health officials issuing serious warnings if the virus continues to spread under control.
Concierge MD LA founder Dr. Abe Malkin said he has received more than a hundred phone calls from people trying to gain early access to initial doses.
“I would say that 5 to 10% of them were willing to try to make a contribution to a charity to get up in line,” according to Malkin.
Malkin’s practice has also been applied to become a vaccine distributor, but focuses on the new FDA-approved Moderna vaccine, which will be easier to handle because it does not have the same storage requirements at extreme temperatures as Pfizer doses.
When it comes to cutting, Governor Gavin Newsom warned that the state will be “very aggressive in ensuring that those with the means, those with influence, do not eliminate those who deserve the most vaccines.”
“To those who think they can cross the line and to those who think because they have the resources or the relationships that will allow them to do so. We will monitor this very, very, very closely,” Newsom said this month.
“We will prioritize and expect everyone in the health care delivery system to be kept to the same ethical standard of truly prioritizing those in greatest need. And the real heroes of this pandemic are health care workers. these are the first people we need to protect and we need to prioritize advancement. ”