"Government Force Sabotages Vaccine Delivery"

New Zealand's vaccine "roll-out" is looking increasingly shambolic, and unerringly politically-driven in selecting whom should be vaccinated when, and with what[1] 

Regardless of the many complications, however, you don't get to choose. A 42-year-old boy with no life (or medical) experience does. His basic instruction: "Hurry up and wait" -- while explaining away why New Zealand was never first in line for any vaccine, why there are long queues now for New Zealanders to get the selected vaccine, why it may not actually be 95% effective, and how an MIQ worker twice-vaccinate with this vaccine still managed to catch and transmit the virus.

It's now April. Last November the boy told us "as vaccines start to come to market New Zealand will be at the front of the queue to be getting vaccines," with "front-line" workers the first to be treated.  Yet even as he said that he knew that the queue had already formed up, and New Zealand was well at the back. And as of today, only two-thirds of those front-line border workers have had their first dose, and only a quarter of that number their second. At the present rate of 5500 government-given vaccinations per day, it will take 365 days to vaccinate 2 million people. That's just 2/5 of a "Team of 5 Million." This is hardly stellar.

How does the boy get to brush over all the problems, and tell us when, in what order, and with what we'll be vaccinated? 

The first step [explains Harry Binswanger] was to involve the government in 'public health'—a concept as invalid as 'public interest.'
    Government's [legitimate] retaliatory force to quarantine a Typhoid Mary is not an action to promote 'public health' but to protect specific individuals against tortious contact with disease spreaders.
    By analogy, the fact that the police would stop a vandal from smashing a statue is not something done to promote 'public aesthetics.'
    After promoting 'public health' was accepted as a proper function for government [however], it followed that the government should take control of the whole country during a pandemic. Which is exactly what was done. No longer is the question: 'Should I take the risk of going to that store, restaurant, tennis court?' No longer would parents decide whether to risk sending the children to school. No longer would businesses decide on what terms they will deal with suppliers, employees, customers. Now all that is decided by government. [Without any due process.] Because it's a matter of 'public health,' you see.... 

Once the concept of enforced blanket lockdowns (without any due process) became accepted came the corollary that, if government is in total charge of 'public health,' then it must ipso facto also be in charge of vaccinations, both of their quality and their delivery...

    Then the testing, treatment, and vaccine development had to be placed under the control of the government. And now, incredibly, the distribution of the products is to be done by government. And it must be doled out for free....

Is it any wonder that commentators are bewailing the "staggering difficulties" of getting everyone vaccinated?

If government were in charge of distributing eggs, there would be lines for eggs.

    If eggs were to be given for free, there would be no lines. Because there would be no eggs.
    Eggs are in fact produced and delivered for private gain—the profits of the egg producers, the profits of the distributors, the profits of the supermarkets, and the equivalent of profit for the egg buyers. The egg buyers prefer the eggs to the other things they could buy with the money to be spent on eggs. That is their gain from the trade.
    Under this system, we witness what John Ridpath called "The Miracle of Breakfast." The supply of eggs is always matched to the demand for them. You never have to think about whether enough eggs (and bacon and bread and . . .) will be available for you to get some. Miraculously, there always is...
    The only reason that the commentators are bewailing the "staggering difficulties" of getting everyone vaccinated is that they never dream of putting the vaccine on the free market.... 

    Things spring up overnight when there is big money to be made. How many homes bought Christmas trees last year? ...  about 8% of the population ... in a couple of weeks....

    There's no practical problem with fast-delivery of the vaccine to eager buyers. There's only a political problem. Based on a moral problem: altruism.
    Supplying, distributing, and inoculating the vaccine should be a for-profit, supply-and-demand-respecting private business operation. That would turbo-charge the whole process.
    Adapting the line from 'Fields of Dreams': Charge for it, and they will come.

* * * * * 

1. "'Vaccine developers are already anticipating variant issues and are working on redesigning the current vaccines to work better against B.1.351,' Moore said.
    "'Another strategy is to give a third dose of the mRNA vaccines [Pfizer and Moderna] and a second dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine,' or possibly combining different types of vaccines in some sequential order to enhance immune response against the variants."

[Hat tips Monica, Dave K, Bill S.]