Ross Clark Ross Clark

Would it be immoral to raise cash for the NHS by selling £100,000 vaccines?

Auctioning vaccines could raise enough to build a new hospital

Covid-19 vaccine, picture credit: Getty

It is easy to be offended by the idea of the super-rich trying to buy their place in the queue for the Covid-19 vaccine ahead of your granny, and easy to feel a warm glow of satisfaction that they are being rebuffed – all supplies are being held on such a tight rein by the NHS that private clinics can’t get a look in. But would it really be such a bad idea if a handful of very wealthy individuals were allowed to have the vaccine ahead of schedule and raise some very useful cash for the NHS in the process? If we are going to vaccinate our way out of the Covid-19 crisis we are very shortly going to have to be administering millions of doses a week. If, say, a thousand, or even ten thousand of them were devoted to high-paying private patients it would hardly cause a ripple in the roll-out programme, but it could potentially raise many millions for the NHS.

What deserves to be dismissed with a sneer are the sums that London’s wealthy have apparently been offering to jump the queue – offers of £2,000 have been reported.

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