Communion and physical presence

There's a good deal of talk (e.g. here and here and here) about the sacrament of the Eucharist and the problems of celebrating it virtually.

It's curious that when there were real priests, the example of the Passover is a family celebration and does not require a priest to consecrate anything. And the Passover is sacramental. It makes present a distant reality that is a prefiguring of the Eucharist. It is not about those people then, it is about those who celebrate it now.

In the New Testament, there are no priests in the sense of the Old Testament. And the Eucharist seems to require a 'priest' to consecrate the elements.

Is there not a precedent for consecration at a distance? We read about healing at a distance in the NT. Why would not the people isolating at home set aside bread and wine and as the service proceeds, let them be consecrated through the shared worship even if the worship is virtual and 'only' on TV? Why should the bread and wine set aside be any different from the servant who was ill and who was healed at a distance (without the benefit of TV or hocus-pocus)?

What is the Eucharist really doing? Why is consecration limited to the ordained or limited to physical presence?

It seems to me this could turn into something quite special. It has application to situations other than a pandemic. After all, do we not celebrate in the presence of the communion of saints? Many of them, having died, are not physically present to us.

The ordained, I am sure, will justify their canons with many words. But the Eucharist is not subject either to magic or to canon law.