Wealthy Californians hope to jump in line and have early access to a coronavirus vaccine by offering to make significant donations to hospitals and charities.
Exclusive medical practices have shown that they receive hundreds of calls from their clients who hope that their status and wealth will earn them a place at the top of the list.
According to Dr. Jeff Toll, one of his clients even offered to make a five-figure donation to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, one of the first hospitals in the state to receive vaccines where he also has admission privileges.
“If I donated $ 25,000 to Cedars, would that help me line up?” the client would have asked.
Wealthy Californians hope to have early access to a coronavirus vaccine by offering to make donations to hospitals. In the picture, an emergency medicine worker receives a vaccine
It happens when the state broke another record for the new daily cases – 53,326 – on Friday
“We get hundreds of calls every day,” Ehsan Ali, who leads the Beverly Hills Concierge Doctor, told the Los Angeles Times.
He charges $ 2,000 to $ 10,000 a year for personalized care and counts Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber among his clients.
“It’s the first time I’ve failed to get something for my patients,” he added.
However, all doctors have been forced to say “no” despite the problems, as the state maintains strict restrictions on who receives the first batches of vaccine.
California provides the vaccine first to health care workers and nursing home residents, then to essential workers and those with chronic health conditions, before it is offered to the general public.
Governor Gavin Newsom said health officials would be “very aggressive in ensuring that those with the means, those with the influence, do not eliminate those who deserve the most vaccines.”
“Those who think they can cross the line and those who think because they have resources or relationships that will allow them to do so. We will monitor this very, very, closely, “Newsom added.
We will prioritize, and expect, everyone in the health care delivery system is held to the same truly ethical standard of prioritization as those who are most in need. And the real heroes of this pandemic are front-line health workers, and these are the people we need to protect and prioritize.
However, despite the insistence of health officials that these criteria will be generally maintained, it did not stop the rich from trying.
Demand has been particularly high in Southern California, which is currently the epicenter of the state outbreak.
“They wanted her yesterday,” said Dr. David Nazarian of my Beverly Hills Concierge. “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.”
Dr. Abe Malkin, founder of Concierge MD LA, has also received a lot of calls offering to make donations in exchange for the vaccine dose.
“I would say that 5-10 percent of them were willing to try to make a contribution to a charity to get up in line,” according to Malkin.
Many clients have placed themselves on waiting lists at expensive clinics to get a dose of vaccine as soon as possible.
Gov. Gavin Newsom, pictured, said health officials will be “very aggressive in making sure that those with the means, the ones with the flu, don’t crowd those who deserve the most vaccines,” as wealthy Californians try to jump. the line
These boutique practices also provide expensive, very low-temperature freezers needed to store Pfizer vaccines as they register to administer the vaccine so that they can reach rich customers as soon as possible.
Currently, only the US government can distribute the vaccines, as Pfizer and Moderna have not yet made them available to doctors or private citizens.
The actions of the rich in California follow a global trend in which most doses of vaccine in the world have been purchased by the richest countries.
Rich countries, which make up only 14% of the world’s population, have used their resources and influence to catch 96% of the Pfizer vaccine and 100% of Moderna, according to a report by Oxfam and other human rights organizations.
However, Alison Bateman-House, an assistant professor of medical ethics at NYU, said the West Coast elite may not all be looking for an early vaccine for selfish reasons.
“Every system has a weak link somewhere, and I’m sure someone will find it and someone will exploit it,” Bateman-House said. “The question is: where will that weak link be and how quickly will it be identified and stopped?”
The California death toll Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday – 295, 394, 288 and 265 – were the deadliest four days the state has seen, as shown in the image above.
This week, California received the first 327,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine, administering the first photos to front-line health care workers fighting the virus.
“I think one of the hard things is that doctors who care for these high-powered people can say you don’t have to wait,” Toll said. “These people don’t usually have to wait.”
California on Friday broke another record of 53,326 daily coronavirus cases in a single day.
The state has now registered an average of more than 40,000 new cases of coronavirus per day in the last week, which is ten times the figures from the end of October.
It happens because deaths in the state also reach record highs.
In the last week, California has recorded seven percent of its total deaths since the beginning of the pandemic, losing more than 1,500 people to the virus.
The death toll Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday – 295, 394, 288 and 265 – were the deadliest four days the state has seen.
Hospitalizations also broke a record 20 days in a row, reaching 16,019 by Thursday, including 3,447 people in intensive care units.
At the national level, there were over 17.4 million cases and 313,669 deaths.
