What the PlayStation 5 can Teach the Vaccine Rollout?

Because vaccines were prioritized similarly across the country, people have faced moral dilemmas that shouldn’t have occurred. One physician in Texas recently went to court for stealing a COVID-19 vaccine vial. His reason? – the leftover vaccine in the open vials would have expired had nobody used it within a few hours, so he took it home for his family after failing to find healthcare workers who did not already get vaccinated under phase one of the state’s strategy. Now, he is facing punishment of up to one year in jail and a $4,000 fine for breaking from county guidelines. This is not the kind of person who should be prosecuted in this pandemic.

Clear communication

When PS5s are available, stores and news outlets know the anticipated restock dates and relay that information to consumers so that people can purchase them as soon as consoles restock at stores. There are even Twitter accounts, like Wario64, that people can follow for live updates on PS5 restocks online.

As for COVID-19 vaccines, why do we not communicate vaccine restocks to the general public? The story of the Texan physician from earlier is a symptom of this bigger problem. Leaving vaccines for the select few instead of opening efforts to everybody has led to thousands of them sitting on shelves and left to expire. In turn, this has led us to witness patches of cities with huge shortages of vaccines alongside surpluses of it in warehouses. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

What if we had clear communication between pharmacies, hospitals, and local governing bodies about where the stock of vaccines is used up and where there is a surplus? If we could be as efficient as the gaming community has been with announcing PS5 restocks, we might have a fighting chance to curb the outright trashing of vaccines that are currently being left to expire.