This isn't actually that crazy, if it is done by states rather than hospitals. If state governments set aside some amount of vaccines and auctioned them off to

This isn't actually that crazy, if it is done by states rather than hospitals. If state governments set aside some amount of vaccines and auctioned them off to the highest bidders, it might help cover the budget shortfalls and cuts to social services that are going to come in the next few years as a result of states draining their budgets to pay unemployment benefits during the pandemic. Those cuts would disproportionately affect the poor, and the rich wouldn't care -- but we can get the rich to help us avoid making the cuts. Given that many of the rich donors would be old, and therefore members of the high risk group eligible for early vaccination, such auctions might not actually make a big difference in who gets the vaccines first.