[mcky]

I wouldn't be surprised if there was a small political motivation here too - the gov were heavily criticized for their terrible handling of covid in care homes, with an older voter base they might want to be seen to be doing right by the care homes this time around

[hn_throwaway_99]

Nonsense. Every country I've heard about is prioritizing nursing home residents, and few of them received the level of criticism that the UK did regarding nursing home residents.

[altacc]

I think there is an understandable political element to this, in that people want to see a reduction in the death rate from Covid-19 and politicians are judged on the number of deaths. So vaccinating those most likely to die makes perfect sense as it'll have most impact on death rates and therefore politicians' reputations.