Some would be happy to entrust decisions to some omniscient and incorruptible authority about should be first is line for vaccination and then second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and so on.
One set of criteria is based on who is most urgent in terms of time -- more likely to die if they get infected, so there's no time to waste. The most obvious and objective answer is age: The older you are, the less likely you'll survive a bout of COVID-19> This is why the CDC's Advisory Committee suggested putting those over age 75 ahead of the 65-74 group, who might wait a few a few weeks longer. This could easily be fine-tuned to absurdity, however, by starting with over 95, then over 85, then over 75, etc. More complications and restrictions just slow things down. Rightly or wrongly, Florida 's Governor DeSantis opted for prioritizing the 4 million Floridians over 65 rather than first serving the 3 million over 75. But this just made the initial scarmble for a spot in line a bit more hectic.
Other criteria would give priority to people who claim to fall in politically-favored (and influential) occupational categories. But that is obviously ambiguous and invites lobbying by those imaging they have a professional right to butt in line.
What could be more essential than members of Congress? Or lawyers and teachers?
Fire Departments and hospitals send paramedics to COVID emergencies, but not all firefighters, MDs or hospital office staff "are first responders" directly exposed to infected patients.
Rare journalists who cover the health beat on the ground may be at high risk, but editors and writers working from home are not. Visualizing the Occupations with the Highest COVID-19 Risk (visualcapitalist.com)
Ideally, a vaccine czar would assign very high priority to those with severe respiratory disease (people who need oxygen), those with weak immune systems including diabetics and those on anti-immune disease, and those with certain heart disease risks (though my high blood pressure and my wife's Afib are well-controlled with drugs). But this is adding a lot of paperwork that is bound to be flawed, disputed and to slow everything down.
Let's instead focus on getting the Feds and states to quit hoarding whatever vaccine they have for some even rainier day (it's wet enough now). And let counties deal with the "last mile" distribution by including private web services to schedule appointments by using private pharmacies, including supermarkets, to deliver the shots (as we do with flu shots).
The hubris of imagining that such matters can and must be handled by The Government is what led arrogant CDC bureaucrats to try to monopolize COVID-19 testing in February, which wasted weeks and killed thousands.
Chastised by that testing fiasco, the CDC-FDA team no longer imagines it can allocate vaccine to millions by top-down executive orders.
Yet some big states seem to be leaning in that same failed direction - hoarding vaccines until (1) they go bad or (2) The Boss decides who gets what and when - whichever may come first.
These are the same Governors that have always been first to close businesses and order people to stay home, eat peanut butter and cut their own hair.
These little Caesars up for reelection in two years, and remarkably sanguine about voter complacency and their entitled incumbency. The may be woke, but they now need to wake up.