Well it's a safety thing. Med staff is at risk cause they are exposed to it every day.
Frontline workers have proper PPE that protects them, and training. They are catching it from each other when their guard is down (in the breakroom, for example). This information is from my wife who is an HR manager at a large healthcare company (several hospitals and clinics with tens of thousands of employees). They are doing stupid things like having potlucks in the breakroom.
This is interesting.
Vaccine capacity vs demand mismatch will eventually be resolved but there will be a period over a few months that will require some kind of stratification introduced in the distribution logistics.
Even if the protection aspect applies mostly, i would include, in the first line of distribution, frontline healthcare workers exposed in the following areas: emergency rooms, intensive care units, Covid-dedicated wards, nursing and chronic care homes, given that the virus spread is still rampant in many areas. Personnel retention in those areas has been a chronic problem and Covid-19 hasn't helped.
This AM, i read (and find ironic) that the HHS is aiming for a top-down and uniform strategy for distribution, implying that states and individuals should have limited input in the process. In periods of vaccine scarcity, the idea is to optimize overall societal functioning. Given how things have evolved so far and given the polarization, this will be interesting to watch and this does not even include the aspect of vaccine nationalism.