It is indeed chaotic, which is also caused by a lack of a clear purpose.
For instance: (in the Netherlands, but this will probably go for other countries as well)
– If we want to minimize covid deaths and pressure on ICU, we have to prioritize the eldest people, those in the care homes and the obese men of 50 years and older. They account for 60% of deaths and 60% of the ICU population and are most eligible to die from covid;
– If we want to minimize covid infectional spread, we have to prioritize children, and the younger and active people that have jobs and many contacts with others.
– If we want to protect healthcare availability, we have to prioritize doctors, nurses and healthcare workers who are in the frontline of covid-care;
– If we want to protect those with comorbidities, we have to prioritize those specific groups of patients.
– etc.
These different angles of attack (and one can think of many more) lead to different strategies and they don’t mix well. So in practice we see, influenced by a mix of medical, scientific, social and political motives, the mushrooming of all kinds of weird prioritizations that can differ from country to country, state to state, month to month. Hence the chaos. In the past 3 months, our “place on the list”, the sort of vaccine as well as the expected start date of vaccination has changed several times.
It’s not pretty, it’s far from optimal, but this is how it goes. And then there is also the shortage of vaccine delivery, that forces us to work with vaccines that are available, but not necessarily the best suited for the group that is currently targeted. Society has become too complex to handle. There you go.
Some countries have stocked up on vaccines to vaccinate everyone of their citizes 4 times over, other countries have found out that no vaccines will be available for them until 2023 (if ever).
No single citizen (not even the doctors) seem to have any say in this process so we must just wait and see what is offered to us. In the end of course, we are free to reject the offer and wait for a better situation, although it would mean a prolongation of the quarantine and not everyone can stand this for all kinds of reasons. But I might not want to be vaccinated with a vaccine that is not tested on my specific health or age profile, that has a tested effectivity (on healthy young volunteers) of 60% and needs two shots, the second of which has been delayed policy-wise beyond the manufacturers (and tested) advice because of shortage of supply, while it is even uncertain whether this second shot will be available even after this extended term. That’s what we are looking at currently in our country (in my case). Which is a “good” situation, because as said, many countries will not have vaccines at all for a long time to go.
In a couple of years we might see a (twice) yearly covid-cocktail-vaccine, carefully designed to protect for the most current covid strains, specially adapted for every continent, readily available and covered by healthcare for everyone or for specific risk-groups. But we are only in the first phase of this pandemic and things are not running smooth at all. We will have to wait and see. No one seems to know what is best for everyone, and at the same time everyone seems to know what is best for him/her.
Indeed: “Sigh”.