A number of non-frontline employees of Stanford Medicine received the COVID-19 vaccine over the weekend, the hospital confirmed, just two weeks after residents at Stanford Hospital protested that the first allocation of vaccines to administrators and doctors not in contact with patients.
The vaccination of doses was offered by appointment on Saturday and Sunday, the Stanford Daily only reported on Wednesday. Although intended for frontline personnel, ‘inaccurate information’ has resulted in a number of employees not being eligible for the vaccine being vaccinated at this stage of implementation.
“Unfortunately, over the past weekend, inaccurate information regarding the availability of vaccines in our community has spread, leading to ineligible employees being vaccinated,” Stanford Medicine said in part in an email to SFGATE.
“At present, Stanford Medicine only gives vaccines to healthcare professionals who are experiencing patients,” the statement continued. “We have addressed this issue and are confident that we will quickly vaccinate the entire Stanford Medicine community through an ethical and equitable process.”
The hospital did not respond to follow-up questions about the number of employees who were not eligible. According to Stanford Daily, there were only “by invitation” intended to give vaccinations to frontline workers.
The ‘inaccurate misinformation’ stemmed from a misconception that an ‘excess’ of the vaccine was available for distribution to Stanford Medicine employees; especially an employee who did not quote the front line who received the vaccine told the Stanford Daily that he was under the impression that too many vials of the vaccine had been thawed for the expected crowd during the holiday weekend.
According to the article, the vaccination made available to all staff is spread by word of mouth. (It is noteworthy that COVID-19 vaccines should be stored in freezers at -80 to -60 degrees Celsius; once thawed, the vaccines should be used within 120 hours or five days, and according to the centers it can not be frozen again Disease control and prevention.)
Questions about how the COVID-19 vaccine was rolled out among employees at Stanford Hospital came to light on December 18 after residents protested the hospital for distributing the vaccine to administrators and doctors working from home. At the time, a letter to Stanford residents, signed by residents, said the hospital was introducing the vaccine to 5,000 employees in the first phase; of which only seven residents and fellow human beings were included.
Stanford Medicine later apologized for its role in vaccine distribution and wrote in part that it accepted full responsibility for the errors in the implementation of our vaccine distribution plan. Our intention was to develop an ethical and equitable process for the distribution of the vaccine. .. We immediately review our plan to better track the distribution of the vaccine. ‘
Frontline and other health professionals in a ‘high-definition setting’ are a top priority, according to a timeline issued by Stanford Medicine on 23 December. Frontline workers would receive their vaccinations from December 17 to 28; hospital, ambulance providers and staff in contact with patients would receive subsequent vaccinations from 28 December to 8 January; all other Stanford Medicine employees could then receive the vaccine after January 8th.
As of Dec. 23, up to 7,725 Stanford Medicine workers had been given the COVID-19 vaccine.
Amy Graff, news editor of SFGATE, contributed to this report.