> An algorithm was used to assign its first allotment of the vaccine. The algorithm prioritized health care workers at highest risk for COVID infections, along with factors like age and the location or unit where they work in the hospital. Residents did not have an assigned location, and along with their typically young age, they were dropped low on the priority list.
Whoever coded up the algorithm for personal COVID-risk probably forgot to take care of null-states for the location input. Residents had their location set to null, and were therefore prioritized lower than they should've been.
It's possible that the admins purposefully created this null-state bug so as to have a reasonable fallback story in the case they got caught, but per Occam's Razor, I think it's much more likely it was a dumb, honest mistake.