Some California hospitals violate federal guidelines for vaccine distribution by vaccinating relatives of workers who are not first-line or first-line health care providers.
According to the hospitals, many employees who are eligible for vaccination refuse the opportunity and have dozens of doses of the vaccine thawed and spoiled. Instead of wasting the vaccine, the hospital allowed some employees to reach out to their families for vaccination.
The hospitals insist that the first response to the vaccine be directed before family members of the workers are vaccinated.
OC register:
A former national leader in emergency management, who asked not to be identified, said this week that a family member working at the Southern California hospital had just before Christmas invited members of her family to Pfizer vaccines at the facility to receive.
The woman provided the Southern California News Group with text messages from the hospital pointing out her appointment and subsequent vaccination. She will return to the hospital in January to receive a second dose of vaccination.
“The hospital planned to vaccinate all of their staff, but a large number of their staff declined and they sat on many thawed vaccines,” the woman said, explaining what the hospital staff told her. “They offered police officers, firefighters and first responders to be vaccinated and also told employees they could invite four family members.”
It is not surprising that the word got out of hand and that the hospital was flooded with pleas for the vaccine, which led to the police trying to vaccinate police and firefighters instead of family members and friends.
“Faced with thawed vaccines that could not be frozen again, and no emergency plan, doctors made the choice to vaccinate people they could,” she said. ‘This is what doctors do to save lives. This is what happens in disasters. Situations are constantly flowing and people need to make decisions to save as many lives as possible within their current capacity. Hospitals are overwhelmed to save lives and do not have time to stop and draw up a new vaccine distribution plan for a small amount of vaccine that will expire soon. ”
Part of the problem seems to be poor planning of at least one hospital. They apparently ordered too much vaccine to vaccinate their workers, which left a significant number of doses.
“The remains could not be returned to the distribution center,” she said in an email. ‘The instructions given with the vaccine indicated that the vaccine has a shelf life of five days when taken out of the approved freezer. The distribution center indicated that the vaccine should not be stored in dry ice or freezers. All the vaccine had to be used or gone within five days. ”
After vaccinating all hospital staff who requested the vaccine, staff contacted doctors treating patients at the facility, as well as local first responders, including police officers, firefighters and emergency medical technicians to inform them of the vaccine’s availability, according to Gilbert. In addition, some civil servants were also vaccinated.
I suppose we should expect this kind of snafus, especially in the early stages. It is disturbing, after all, that the hospitals could not find enough police and firefighters who wanted to be vaccinated. It makes us think that they really did not try hard enough.
As for those who do not want to be vaccinated, it is their choice. Honestly, it leaves more vaccines for those who do want to be vaccinated, which means they will get their dose earlier.