There's a stark difference between the extraordinary technological achievement of companies developing, testing, producing, and winning FDA authorization to market three vaccines for COVID-19 in less than a year—and the utterly haphazard system for deciding who receive these products and in what order. Montgomery County in suburban Maryland presents a bleak case study: neighbors and friends eagerly share stories about acquaintances who got or did not get vaccination appointments. They scrutinize a Google spreadsheet that provides community anecdotes and success stories, as if trying to read prophecies in tea leaves.
