“In late December and early January, as COVID-19 vaccines were just beginning their chaotic rollout to the states, a secretive scramble took place inside the Trump White House. One after another, political appointees at very high levels approached chief of staff Mark Meadows and members of the National Security Council to ask a favor: They wanted to be on the list. It was, to be sure, the ultimate VIP list: On it were the names of U.S. government officials whose work was considered so essential that they needed to be vaccinated against COVID-19 from a limited allotment that would otherwise have gone to the general public. The allotment was intended to protect career staff who could not telecommute (such as White House butlers), critical workers in the field (such as Secret Service agents), and those in the line of presidential succession. The question of who was eligible in an outgoing administration, with just weeks remaining until the inauguration of a new president, was complex. To make the cut your role had to be ‘essential’ to national functions.”

“Though it is not clear who ultimately succeeded in crashing the list, which morphed continuously as names were punted off of it and then mysteriously reappeared, most petitioners ran into a surprisingly hard line. ‘It ain’t happening,’ was a common refrain, said one career official familiar with the decision-making. In part this was because Meadows – who, like many working in the White House, contracted COVID-19 late last year – had received explicit directions from his boss. On December 13, President Trump tweeted that White House employees would wait their turn unless ‘specifically necessary.’ But in a White House awash in special favors, that didn’t stop almost every stripe of political appointee, at almost every rung of the ladder, from ‘shamelessly’ attempting to jump the line, according to a senior administration official. (Meadows and President Trump did not respond to requests for comment.)” – Vanity Fair.