"It's a horrible mess. With these new restricted eligibility criteria from the [FDA], getting a COVID vaccine has now become a chaotic, constantly shifting scavenger hunt that depends on what state you're in," Dr. Oni Blackstock, a primary care physician and executive director of Health Justice, a racial and health equity consultancy, told HuffPost via email. Some states, like New York, have granted residents permission to get their shot, no matter if they meet the FDA's eligibility requirements or not.
"A lot of this infrastructure, billions of dollars of it, is being built just for a few customers and a few facilities and these happen to be the wealthiest companies in the world," said Ari Peskoe, who directs the Electricity Law Initiative at Harvard University. "I think some of the fundamental assumptions behind all this just kind of breaks down."