Yahoo Finance Bucks executive Alex Lasry, 33, receives COVID-19 vaccine early after lucking out with his wife
At 33, Milwaukee Bucks executive Alex Lasry isn’t eligible to receive his COVID-19 vaccine in Wisconsin.
The state is still focused on administering the vaccine to residents who are over 65 and those with underlying health issues. Lasry, the son of team co-owner and billionaire Marc Lasry, isn’t either of those things.
Yet Lasry and his wife Lauren lucked out this week, thanks to a batch of vaccines that were set to expire.
How did Alex Lasry get his COVID-19 vaccine early?
Lasry told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Friday that his wife, Lauren, received a call from her uncle, a rabbi, about an excess of vaccines that were going to expire at the senior healthcare facility where he works.
Since the vaccines were going to expire anyways, and would have been thrown out had they not been administered, Lauren’s uncle was trying to get as many people he could in the community vaccinated without letting them go to waste.
And, since Lauren is pregnant, he thought to call her.
It was pure happenstance, but I’m incredibly thankful.
It’s safe, healthy and how we’re all going to finally get out of this pandemic. As the rollout continues, if available, please don’t let any vaccines go to waste! Get vaccinated!— Alex Lasry (@AlexanderLasry) January 29, 2021
“This week I got vaccinated!” Lasry tweeted on Friday morning. “My wife got a call from her uncle that works in a facility that had extra doses that were going to go to waste if not used right away. With Lauren early in her pregnancy, we wanted to ensure our home, and entire community, is safe for everyone … It was pure happenstance, but I’m incredibly thankful.”
On the surface, it would be easy to assume that it was Lasry’s connections that got him the vaccine early — especially since the vaccine rollout has been slower than expected, and many communities are still focused on those at a much higher risk of contracting the virus.
Lasry, a New York City hedge fund manager, served as the host committee chair for the 2020 Democratic National Convention, and is even reportedly considering a Senate run himself in 2022.
Yet his connections, while plentiful, didn’t help him here.
“That has nothing to do with anything,” Lasry told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “Honestly, if I wasn’t married to Lauren, I don’t know that I would have gotten a call or known about it.”
Lasry’s situation isn’t unusual
Lasry getting his vaccine early isn’t unique.
With a strict timetable and expiration date on the vaccines, people across the country have lucked into getting their doses early — which is a good thing.
Health care workers in Oregon even started administering doses to drivers after they all got stuck on a road in a snowstorm this week.
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, 69, is still waiting for his vaccine, but he’s not upset is people get theirs early. He’d rather they all get used, as that’s by far the fastest way for his state to beat the coronavirus.
“We don’t want a dose wasted,” Wisconsin department of health and human services deputy secretary Julie Willems Van Dijk said, via The Associated Press. “We need all these doses in arms. That’s how this can happen, even with excellent planning.”
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