[U, Chatanooga, too] Hamilton County, Tennessee -- For Shame.

This is. . . deeply disappointing (Chatanooga, the home of the Lookout Mountain railway, is the county seat of Hamilton County). At a minimum, with these early drop-shipped, limited availability vaccine doses, there should be a protocol that anyone over 75 years of age is automatically moved ahead in line, and anyone (without other risk factors) under the age of 30. . . is automatically shunted toward the back of the line. And when the doses run out for the day, so be it.

I suspect there is some dramatizing of the way this was reported, but the essential facts seem undisputed, and confirmed by several outlets:

. . .Officials in Hamilton County, Tennessee have been caught giving the COVID-19 vaccination to "close friends and family" after turning away elderly people by claiming they had run out of the vaccine.

When a journalist questioned a car of seven younger people who had been vaccinated, the people in the car laughed and said, "We got contacts," as in, they're connected to people who could give them the vaccination over older people who need it far more.

WRCB reports that on Thursday, the Hamilton County Health Department began offering vaccines to people 75 and older at 9 a.m., quickly causing a traffic jam and causing the department to start turning away cars by 1 p.m., including cars filled with old people who had been waiting over four hours. . . .

People -- we need to do better. We are better. . . than this would imply, as a nation. Please think of those who have come before you, and sacrificed. . . for your life to be. . . what it is.

नमस्ते