Tesla Back-Channel Vaccine Plea Shows Fog on Access to Shots (1)

U.S. companies have been quietly toiling behind the scenes to get vaccines for their employees as soon as possible, offering to help government officials distribute the shot as a way to enhance the economic recovery that they depend on.

For Tesla Inc., the goal was to get a message from a board member to California’s state epidemiologist, via Elon Musk’s chief of staff. In Walmart Inc.’s home state of Arkansas, an executive sought to avoid having to traipse workers across town to get vaccinated at other pharmacies.

Overtures like these, gleaned from messages to state and local ...