I’ve been there. But it’s unproductive, not to mention exhausting, to police everybody you know or sort-of-know. The real problem is, the system as it is currently set up provokes such scrutiny. In many states, the lack of clarity about what specifically qualifies as a preexisting condition has resulted in unfair pressure on people to disclose their private medical history, as to fend off the judgment of prying friends and colleagues. Not every eligible pre-existing condition is necessarily visible, and we need to trust that people are making the right decisions for themselves, based on information that we might not have access too.
Yes, there are going to be bad apples. Distributing the vaccine is way too urgent to be bogged down by the lengthy process of verifying the eligibility of every single recipient, and, as a result, it’s fairly easy to lie in order to cut in line. Does that make doing so okay? Of course not. “The core ethical mistake here is thinking you’re special and making an exception of yourself,” said Pamela Hieronymi, a UCLA professor of philosophy who specializes in moral responsibility, and who spoke to Los Angeles Magazine. Reports of young people dressing up like “grannies,” or elaborately stretching definitions, such as the SoulCycle instructor who ruled herself eligible as an “educator,” abound. That’s wrong, and those people should feel bad!
But on the whole, the vaccine clinics in America are doing what they’re supposed to do: getting shots in millions of arms every day, and, in the process, rapidly lowering the future loss of life. As exasperating as it is on a personal level, what’s unfolding is a minor miracle: that we have such effective vaccines in the first place, and that there could even be enough “for every adult in America” by the end of May.
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