Who should get vaccine?

How did Wall Street bankers end up near front of the line for H1N1 vaccine?

President Obama's daughters were entitled to get the swine flu vaccine from the White House doctor last month. That's one of the perks of being a member of the first family.

But when Wall Street bankers shoved their way to the front of the line for vaccines? Well, that was appalling.

A slight tempest arose when it was announced that Sasha and Malia Obama were vaccinated by the White House doctor in late October. Caustic comments cropped up on blogs and other online sites, and parents complained to the media that they had to wait hours in lines to get shots for their children at public clinics.

In truth, the Obama girls didn't exactly go to the front of the line. They got their H1N1 vaccine at least two weeks after the first Americans received their shots and only after the vaccine became available to other Washington schoolchildren.

And, of course, all children are considered one of the high-risk groups the government says should get swine flu vaccine first. Denying Sasha and Malia a shot would have been a breach of public health protocol.

Besides, as noted, they're the children of the president. They might get to ride on Air Force One, but they also are forced to try to live normal lives under the constant gaze of the public and under restrictions by which any member of the first family must abide, including not being able to go anywhere without a Secret Service agent or two in tow.

They deserve to get their shots from one of the few physicians who still does house calls.

But what chain of events allowed Wall Street bankers to butt to the head of the line for swine flu shots? The giant financial institutions Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley reportedly were among the first employers to receive shipments of the hard-to-get vaccine from public health authorities.

Predictably, this resulted in furious cries of indignation from New Yorkers who had to wait in line for shots. Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., said he was “stunned” by the news and wrote a letter of complaint to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

“Vaccines should go to people who need them most, not people who happen to work on Wall Street,” Dodd said.

But the federal government might not be the only culprit in this case. Vaccines reportedly are shipped to the states, where local authorities decide how they will be distributed.

In New York City, pediatric and pregnancy clinics already had received the vaccine when the bankers got their supply. And, it seems, the financial firms were among the first to place an order for the vaccine.

Still, it looks bad. The bankers seem to have figured that out, announcing that they will give the vaccine only to those employees who fall into one of the high-risk categories, such as pregnant women, diabetics and those suffering from cancer.

We probably have not seen the last of the stories about high-risk people waiting in long lines in the dead of winter while the undeserving have their vaccines delivered to their penthouses. So far, only 31.8 million doses have been made available nationwide. Meanwhile, the high-risk groups alone total as many as 159 million people.

As unpopular as the big bankers are already, they might consider donating their doses to needier New Yorkers.