How would we roll out a rare vaccine that causes immortality?

First, let’s remember the story of Tithonus in Greek mythology:

According to the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, when Eos asked Zeus to grant Tithonus eternal life, the god consented. But Eos forgot to ask also for eternal youth, so her husband grew old and withered.

And there’s no need wasting time on who SHOULD get the vaccine. Let’s talk about who WOULD almost certainly be first in line regardless of any conceivable noble stipulations. Does anyone here suppose it might be those with the money?

Was talking about this (sort of) with my parents, some days ago; getting to 130 years old.
We would hate it, we decided.
Imagine to live your last 50 years in a body (and possibly mind) that is old en fragile and without much energy.
(My parents are around eighty now and they start(ed) to see it going down(hill).
That’s like waiting two or three decennia for your death, all the while not being able to do much any longer.
Now imagine that status for infinity…

It would only be rolled out to the richest.

I don’t want to live forever. I would have no interest in immortality, especially if I would get old and decrepit and not be able to pay for it.

@Ltryptophan and @rebbel your scenario misses the point that a vaccine that allows immortality almost certainly implies defeat of the aging process. Even for folks receiving the vaccine at the hundred year mark or beyond, it would then be a matter of hanging on to await the arrival of the vaccine which reverses the aging process.

First would be the astronauts used to retieve more.
Second would be the very rich.

I guess my idea stemmed from the abundance of life saving vaccines in the west that create a life-extension effect. The production of these cures was a ‘no price is too high’ to reach the invention. Since a vaccine that could cure all disease and secure immortality I would expect that economic policy to still apply, and apply even more dramatically.

If you’ll accept that this proposed immortality vaccine is 100% effective at preventing ANY kind of death, what price is too high to pay? Obviously, many would say: no price is too high.

Therefore, I think wars would immediately begin, since the instruments of war would seem to soon be practically useless.

Also, if you’re immortal, I think a new culture would have to be devised that suits immortality. In essence, we can’t relate fully to immortal beings.

All that to ask – what does this say about our current events? And, also, in a more literal sense, if we’re indeed on the brink of treatments that create states that approximate immortality, the era we live in could be the last that experiences the epic loss of death.

It’s interesting to imagine those would be immortal historians painstakingly memorializing those who did suffer death. Possibly even animating facsimiles.

Immortality ain’t fun, even if you retain your 35 or 40 yr old condition. Who wants to be around when all your friends died 50 years ago?

And by having only the super rich able to buy it, who wants to keep having Trump spout off every day?

I imagine the “immortals” would have a high suicide rate after about 50 to 75 years.

It is likely to take decades, or even centuries for an immortality vaccine to be discovered, if ever.

If it was only possible to give this vaccine to 100.000 people per year you can be sure that the rich and politicians etc, will make sure they get it first.

There is actually no way someone can be made immortal with a vaccine even if one was discovered.

The longer someone lives the more likely is that they will die, even if they think they have mortality it would not stop them being killed in a car crash, plane crash, or dying in a 1000 different ways.

@Poseidon this is just a thought exercise.