Jumping the queue
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White House personnel will be among the first people to get the vaccine:
Some White House staff members will be among the first wave of people in the United States to receive coronavirus vaccinations, a Trump administration official said Sunday night.
The news comes as boxes of the first shipments of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine departed a facility in Michigan, with front-line health-care workers, the elderly and other vulnerable people expected to receive top priority.
“Senior officials across all three branches of government will receive vaccinations pursuant to continuity of government protocols established in executive policy,” National Security Council spokesman John Ullyot said in a statement.
President Trump and several of his top aides have played down the severity of the virus that has killed nearly 300,000 Americans, with at least 16 million cases reported since late February. The virus has been surging throughout the United States.
I’m actually of two minds about this. On the one hand, top government personnel getting vaccinated is defensible in principle, and Trump signalling that the vaccine is safe may encourage his followers to take it. On the other hand, it rankles for members of the administration that has completely botched the pandemic response and caused countless people to die alone will go to the top of the line, while countless ordinary workers will remain at risk.