Wearing bathrobes, pajamas or whatever they could wear quickly, hundreds of people flocked to Seattle Thursday night to get Covid vaccines after a refrigerator that cooled 1,600 doses failed, leading to an insane vaccination.
The improvised vaccinations began after a refrigerator at a Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Seattle broke down, meaning the Modern vaccines had to be injected quickly, otherwise they would have become less effective and had to be thrown away. Health officials reached two other hospital systems in the city and an urgent call was made at 11pm warning residents that they have a rare chance of getting vaccinated if they can come right away.
“We need to get these 1600 doses in the arms of people in the next 12 hours,” said Susan Mullaney, Kaiser’s regional president in Washington. a virtual news conference Friday describes the hospital’s call for action.
Within minutes, there were long queues outside at least two medical centers, and by 3:30 a.m., the vaccines had all been administered, hospital officials said.
In interviews with local television stations, the patients arriving said they were relaxing at home, washing dishes or watching the news when they saw that they were suddenly getting the chance to get a chance. One couple said their daughter called after they were in bed to say she had signed them up for an appointment at 1am
“We did not have time to get dressed, so I just came as I am,” said the mother, pointing to her husband who was wearing a bathrobe.
The situation in Seattle was only the latest case in which an outline of the vaccination process forced health officials to give the vaccines to everyone they could find. It also highlights the challenge of the two vaccines approved so far in the United States – both of which must be kept cold. Earlier this week, health workers trapped in a snowstorm in Oregon walked from car to car and asked stranded drivers if they wanted a shot, after realizing that the doses they were transporting might expire while on the highway wait.
Seattle Hospital officials told local news offices they tried to prioritize older patients and others already eligible for vaccinations in the state, but said their first priority was to dispense all of the vaccines before it has expired.
“We are tired, but we are inspired,” said Kevin Brooks, chief operating officer of Swedish Health Services, one of two hospitals that administered the vaccines, in a statement. “It was touching to see grandmothers being vaccinated in wheelchairs at 2am.”
Mullaney, the regional president in Kaiser, said every refrigerator and freezer in Seattle has been tested since then and that they all work well.