And there’s a good reason for that: People who have documentation of their medical problems are also more likely to have regular doctors and good record-keeping systems-things low-income, disconnected people might not have. If you say you’re asthmatic or a UPS driver, you’ll probably slide right through. States, counties, hospitals, and other vaccine distributors are mostly running on the honor system, says Marcus Plescia, the chief medical officer at the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. “And guess what? Twenty-nine of them said yes.” (The lone person who deemed themselves nonessential was a bank teller, he said.) “I’ve asked about 30 people now, ‘Are you important in terms of your job?’” Caplan said. ![]() Few people, it seems, consider themselves nonessential. “I’m hearing a lot of entitled, empowered people, who are used to getting what they want, having conniptions about vaccination,” Arthur Caplan, the chief medical ethicist at NYU, told me. People are definitely fibbing to get the vaccine early, experts say, though no one quite knows the extent of the problem. Like Carrie Bradshaw, I’ve been typing away forlornly on my MacBook for the past year, and much like her, I couldn’t help but wonder: Am I a chump for just waiting my turn? Should I take that bad case of bronchitis that my doctor thought might have been asthma and spin it into a bona fide health risk? Should I fudge the fact that I vape e-cigarettes and call myself a smoker? After all, don’t we need to get to herd immunity as quickly as possible? I could be part of making that possible, and get back to yoga to boot. By now, it feels as if half the people I know have managed to get the vaccine, and I send each of them a “happy for u” text and also a silent ray of resentment. But after that, more and more people my age-in their 20s and 30s-got the vaccine, and I began to question whether so many of my acquaintances were actually secret asthmatics. Finally, the most vulnerable are protected! Then friends with preexisting conditions started posting vaccine selfies, and I was excited for them too. I was thrilled when I saw pictures of elderly people getting vaccinated. A few weeks ago, I signed up for Virginia’s COVID-vaccine waitlist, closed my laptop, and turned on Netflix. I didn’t prowl around pharmacies and hospitals at closing time, hoping for an extra dose. So when I learned that my state, Virginia, was currently vaccinating only people older than 65, people with health conditions, and essential workers, I decided to patiently wait my turn.
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