//Florida county has elderly residents camp out overnight to get Covid-19 vaccine

Florida county has elderly residents camp out overnight to get Covid-19 vaccine

Daisie Esseie, right, a 77-yer-old health care worker, waits to receive a Pfizer/BioNtech Covid-19 vaccine earlier this month. | Eva Marie Uzcategui Trinkl/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Trial by ordeal is a bad way to distribute lifesaving drugs.

On Sunday, Lee County, Florida’s Department of Health sent out a fairly surprising press release. Hundreds of Covid-19 vaccines would be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis at various sites throughout the county. According to the press release, the first such distribution would begin at 2 pm on Monday, at a parks and recreation center in Estero, Florida. Vaccines would only be available to people 65 and older.

What happened next was completely predictable.

According to the News-Press, a local Florida newspaper, hundreds of elderly people lined up at the vaccination site. Some of them arrived just two hours after the vaccination sites