The vaccinated are now the new elite

The coronavirus vaccine wasn’t supposed to be a golden ticket. A tiered and efficient rollout was meant to inoculate front-line workers and the most vulnerable before the rest of society.

- Jonah Engel Bromwich

But scattershot and delayed distribution now threatens to create a new temporary social class — one that includes not just people who are at higher risk for infection or severe illness and death, but also grocery store customers in Washington; Indonesian influencers; elementary schoolteachers; American celebrities who because of their work or because of luck, have been able to get immunised quickly.

Knightsbridge Circle, a luxury travel service in London that charges 25,000 pounds (Rs 24 lakh) a year for membership, made waves earlier this month when its founder, Stuart McNeill, told The Telegraph that the club would fly members who were 65 or older to the United Arab Emirates to receive privately obtained vaccines.