quoting from a secondary source Rationing During a Pandemic Flu Aryeh Dienstag (this is pre-covid article!). There are multiple reference to value of people to society
Horiyot 13: men over women (in saving, but not in ransom), kohen over israel over mamzer, but Talmid Chacham before Am Haaretz, even if a King [T’Ch is irreplacable, King not]
Mishnah Berurah (OC: 547:22) – there are no Talmidei Chachamim at our times [AAQ: this might have changed 🙂 seems not to be the current opinion, though]
Rambam on Mishna Haroyot 3:8 – we do save King before Talmid Chacham because people need him
R Tendler: human life is infi nite and therefore cannot be prioritized objectively. Practically, however, society may need certain persons more than others and therefore prioritization can be used
R Oshry (Shoah, selecting people to send to die): duty of community leaders to take courage and operate in any way they saw fit to save as many people as possible
R Auerbach: age does not go into the equation of whom one saves first. What one should only look into is the level of danger and the chance to save the most people
private communication with Rabbi Daichovsky he told the author that there is a value in saving people whom society needs in order to preserve a functional society