One way or another, it's on its way to becoming a status symbol and it was bound to happen--

‘Vaccine Hunters’ Cross State Lines in Search of Shots

With no nationwide plan for distributing coronavirus vaccines, people are scrambling to other states. Some health officials, saying greater immunity is the goal, aren’t standing in the way.

By Simon Romero, Amy Harmon, Lucy Tompkins and Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio @ NYTimes.com, Feb. 4, 2021, 7:12 p.m. ET

When Chanel Maronge saw on Facebook that she was eligible to get a Covid-19 vaccine, she seized the opportunity. The only catch? She had to cross the state line to Mississippi last week, driving an hour and a half from her home in Baton Rouge, La., to get her first shot.

“The idea of having to wait an unlimited amount of time in Louisiana to get a vaccine just didn’t work for us,” said Ms. Maronge, 37, a school librarian who has hypertension. Her husband, who has diabetes, and both her parents were able to get vaccinated along with her in McComb, Miss.

With overwhelming demand in the early months of the vaccine rollout, thousands of Americans are crossing state lines on quests for doses. The scramble to get inoculated has turned attention to the patchwork of vaccination rules devised by states, given a lack of national, standardized protocols.

With states varying widely in prioritizing who can get shots, “vaccine hunter” groups, which scour the country for places where people qualify for the vaccine, have sprung into action on social media. That has public health officials grappling with how to handle pandemic travelers: Should strict rules be followed, turning away all outsiders, or should as many shots be administered as possible, even if some may go to people from other places

“The federal government has created this ‘Hunger Games’ scenario where people are out there doing everything they can to get to the front of as many lines as they possibly can,” said Dr. Francisco García, director of the Pima County Health Department in Tucson, Ariz. “The limited vaccine supply provokes even more anxiety because people are trying to get their hands on a very rare commodity.” [....]

This sure-to-happen phenomenon is one reason I couldn't believe all the social engineering crap at the start about basically trying to entice reluctant minority populations to get it. It struck me as: absurd!

Just let it become hip and they'll be there. Right now the thing is: numbers, massive numbers any class, color , ethnicity or creed of human.

It's a whole different thing when it's a immunization that masses have already accepted, i.e. MMR or flu.  It's not cool anymore to get it, it's just another required drudgery.

This one is for a disease that's rampant everywhere and uncontrolled nearly everywhere and has affected every single life on the planet. Just vaccinate whoever wants it, for chrissake, worry about the reluctants later. The reluctants will be much better protected if everybody else that wants one is vaccinated until they can be convinced. Do we have massive measles outbreaks these days, or pockets of outbreaks? That's the point.

Those bio-ethicists need to take a break and volunteer to administer shots or get on the plant assembly lines...

great video report on how, nationwide, so far for seniors getting a slot for vaccination can be a lot like The Hunger Games