Wealthy Californians hope to skip the queue and gain early access to a coronavirus vaccine by offering to make significant donations to hospitals and charities.
Exclusive medical practices have revealed that they receive hundreds of calls from their clients hoping 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 you give $ 25,000 to Cedars, would that help me get in line?” the customer allegedly asked.
Wealthy Californians expect early access to a coronavirus vaccine by offering to make donations to hospitals. In the picture, an emergency medicine worker receives a vaccine
Occurs when the state broke a new record of new daily cases on Friday (53,326)
“We get hundreds of calls every day,” Ehsan Ali, who heads the Beverly Hills concierge doctor, told the Los Angeles Times.
He charges between $ 2,000 and $ 10,000 a year for personalized attention and counts between Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber among his clients.
“It’s the first time I’ve failed to get anything for my patients,” he added.
However, all doctors have been forced to say “no” despite the inconvenience, as the state maintains strict restrictions on who receives the first batches of their vaccine.
California first offers the vaccine to health care workers and nursing home residents, then to essential workers and those with chronic health problems, before it is offered to the public more generally.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has said health officials will be “very aggressive in making sure those who have the means, those who have influence, are not eliminating those who deserve the vaccines the most.”
“To those who think they can get ahead of the line and to those who think because they have resources or have relationships that will allow them to do so. We will control it very, very, very closely,” Newsom added.
“We will give priority and hope that everyone in the health care delivery system has the same ethical standard of really prioritizing those who need it most. And the real heroes of this pandemic are front-line health workers, and these are the people we need to protect and prioritize moving forward. “
Although, despite the insistence of health officials, that these criteria will generally be maintained, it has not prevented the rich from trying.
Petitions have been specifically high in Southern California, which is currently the epicenter of the state outbreak.
“They wanted it yesterday,” said Dr. David Nazarian of My Concierge MD in Beverly Hills. “We will abide by the rules, but we are doing our best to insure and distribute the vaccine when it is available to us.”
Dr. Abe Malkin, founder of Concierge MD LA, has also received many calls to offer donations in exchange for the vaccine dose.
“I would say between 5 and 10 percent of these were willing to try to contribute to a charity to get them to stand in line,” according to Malkin.
Many clients have been put on waiting lists at expensive clinics to get a dose of the vaccine as quickly as possible.
Gov. Gavin Newsom, pictured, has said health officials will be “very aggressive in making sure those who have the means, those who have influence, are not eliminating those who deserve the most vaccines,” as wealthy Californians try jump line
These boutique practices are also getting the expensive, ultra-low-temperature freezers needed to store Pfizer vaccines, as they register to administer the vaccine so they can reach a wealthy clientele as soon as they can.
Currently, only the U.S. government can distribute the vaccines, as Pfizer and Moderna have not yet made them available for purchase by physicians or private citizens.
Shares of the rich in California follow a global trend where most global vaccine doses have been purchased by the richest countries.
According to a report by Oxfam and other human rights organizations, rich countries representing only 14% of the world’s population have used their resources and influence to capture 96% of the Pfizer vaccine and 100% of the Modern one.
However, Alison Bateman-House, an assistant professor of medical ethics at New York University, said the West Coast elite may not be looking for an early vaccine for selfish reasons.
“All systems have 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 this weak link be and how quickly will it be identified and stopped?”
California death toll Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (295, 394, 288 and 265) were the four deadliest days the state has seen, as shown in the image above.
California received its first 327,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine this week, administering the first shots to front-line health workers battling the virus.
“I think one of the hard things is that the doctors who care for these people of great power can say you don’t have to wait,” Toll admitted. “These people don’t usually have to wait.”
California on Friday broke another record for daily coronavirus cases with 53,326, reported in a single day.
The state has now averaged more than 40,000 new coronavirus cases a day over the past week, which is ten times the end-October figure.
It comes when deaths in the state are also reaching record highs.
Last week, California recorded seven percent of all fatalities since the start of the pandemic, and lost more than 1,500 residents to the virus.
Their deaths on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (295, 394, 288 and 265) were the four deadliest days the state has seen.
Hospitalizations have also broken a record 20 days in a row, reaching 16,019 on Thursday, including 3,447 people in intensive care units.
Across the country there have been more than 17.4 million cases and 313,669 deaths.
