Wealthy Scramble to Get COVID-19 Vaccine

They are offering tens of thousands of dollars in cash, forcing their personal assistants to harass doctors every day and ask them if a five-figure donation to a hospital would help them jump the line.

The COVID-19 vaccine is here – just like the rich who want it first.

“We get hundreds of calls every day,” said Dr. Ehsan Ali, who runs the Beverly Hills Concierge Doctor. Her clients, including Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber, pay between $ 2,000 and $ 10,000 per year for personalized care. “This is the first time that I have failed to get something for my patients.”

With early doses rare, California has established a strict order of vaccinations based on need and risk: healthcare workers and nursing home residents, then essential workers and those with chronic health conditions. , then, finally, everyone.

But for those with power, money, and influence, the rules can still be bent. California’s stern message about serving the neediest first hasn’t stopped the wealthy from trying to get ahead of teachers, farm workers and firefighters.

Dr Jeff Toll, who has admitting privileges at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, one of the first hospitals to stock the vaccine, recalled that one patient asked, “If I give Cedars $ 25,000, is it would help me to queue? ”. says no.

Watchdogs have warned that the initial scarcity of the COVID-19 vaccine could create a thriving black market, especially if well-connected people in the healthcare industry skim a few doses here and there for friends, family, or more. offering.

But getting earlier access to the shot may not even require a lot of background negotiation. Some wealthy patients may get vaccines earlier than the average person because they are members of exclusive health care groups that provide the kind of high-quality primary care that most Americans cannot afford.

These patients are already on waiting lists with concierge physicians who charge up to $ 25,000 per year for 24-hour access to top-notch care, which includes getting their clients vaccinated as soon as they arrive. they are available.

Janitorial firms receive frantic and repeated phone calls from well-heeled clients and their assistants. They are busy putting together long charts of patients with medical histories and potential risks of COVID-19.

And they’re grabbing expensive ultra-low-temperature freezers, which are rare, to store the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine, which must be stored at minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit.

Doctors in the store say they will adhere to public health guidelines to determine who has priority. But being on a waiting list at a practice that has special freezers and other high-quality resources means you’re already on the front line once the supply opens.

Some store practices have already sought permission from California health officials to store and administer the vaccine at a time when the typical primary care physician has little idea when and how their patients will have access to the vaccine. vaccines.

“As soon as we heard about the vaccine coming onto the market, we started looking for freezers,” said Andrew Olanow, co-founder of Sollis Health, a janitorial firm with clinics in New York City, Hamptons and Beverly Hills.

Six weeks ago, Sollis Health placed an order for six ultra-low temperature freezers at approximately $ 5,000 each. They are due to arrive next month.

After Sollis booked his freezers, he said, several “larger government orders” have absorbed much of the remaining supply, meaning wait times will be longer for clinics ordering. now.

Representatives for Pfizer and Moderna, whose vaccine is slated to be cleared this week, said doctors and private citizens could not afford them doses yet. The US government controls the allocation of doses to the 50 states.

Until the vaccine is available to nongovernmental buyers, physician-janitors are in the unusual position of telling their demanding patients that, for now, they will just have to wait.

That hasn’t stopped patients from trying.

“People are willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars,” said Toll, the doctor with admitting privileges at Cedars-Sinai. His private concierge practice in Los Angeles starts at $ 5,000 a year and can go up to $ 25,000.

Doctors who respond to these kinds of requests, he said, must be comfortable telling the rich and powerful “no,” as when they ask for inappropriate drugs. Toll tells his patients that those identified as most at risk by public health officials should get it first.

“We are governed by the Hippocratic Oath, the responsibility to provide care to those who need it most,” said Dr. Abe Malkin, founder of Concierge MD LA, a home medical service that charges up to $ 750 per month. “But at the same time, there will obviously be gray areas depending on the needs of each patient.”

Guidelines that prioritize people who work in essential industries, have underlying health conditions, or are over 65 are massive gray areas. In California alone, nearly 12 million people – two-thirds of the state’s workforce – work in essential industries.

This ambiguity creates opportunities for well-connected people to argue that an underlying health issue or a C-suite level position in a critical business should push them to the front of the line, said Glenn Ellis, bioethicist and visiting researcher at Tuskegee University. .

“With enough money and influence, you can make a compelling argument about anything,” Ellis said. But unlike lobbying for a better table in a restaurant or a better seat at a Broadway show, he said, taking a dose of vaccine intended for an essential worker could cost someone their health or their life.

The model is familiar in a state where Hollywood stars and Silicon Valley executives are used to making do. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who made his own blunder by eating without a mask at the French Laundry in Napa Valley, warned that California would be “ very aggressive in ensuring that those who have the means, those who have influence , do not oust those who most deserve vaccines. “

“Those who think they can get ahead and those who think because they have the resources or have connections that will allow them to do so … we are also going to be watching this very, very closely. “Newsom said.

Alison Bateman-House, assistant professor of medical ethics at NYU, said not everyone tries their relationships for a shot out of purely selfish motivation. Some people “are not a top priority for vaccination, but have what they see as a pressing need,” she said, including families of immunocompromised parents who might otherwise wait months to be vaccinated.

“Every system has a weak link somewhere, and I’m sure someone is going to find it and someone is going to exploit it,” Bateman-House said. “The question is: where will this weak link be and how quickly will it be identified and stopped?”

Taryn Vian, an anti-corruption healthcare expert who teaches at the University of San Francisco, said powerful people could gain quick access to the vaccine not through recourse to corruption or coercion, but by more subtle means, like making requests of equally powerful friends.

A friend of the head of a pharmaceutical company, medical distributor, hospital, or nursing home might ask if there are additional doses available, and the boss might ask his assistant to see s ‘he can help. The assistant could then interpret the request as a request to divert a dose, Vian explained.

“VIP treatment is very common” in the healthcare industry, said Vian.

It’s already happening in California, say doctors, especially in the entertainment world. Celebrities and executives don’t harass their doctors themselves, but ask their assistants to find out how they can get better treatment.

“Their people literally call me every day,” said a doctor who requested anonymity to speak candidly about their clients, many of whom work in Hollywood. “They don’t want to wait. They want to know how they can get it faster. ”