Some lucky Kentucky residents were able to skip the queue and get COVID-19 vaccines – because their local Walgreens had extra doses.
Louisville restaurant owner Andrew Masterson told the Courier-Journal that he was among those vaccinated, although he was not part of a priority group, after a friend told him that Pfizer shots were fired at their local Walgreens are available.
“He called us, and we ran straight,” Masterson said of himself and his wife.
“It was pure luck,” added Masterson, whose wife has stage 4 cancer.
A Walgreens representative told the point of sale that although the general public would not normally be offered the vaccine in front of groups such as front-line health workers and residents of nursing homes, the giant of the pharmacy chain found with remaining doses.
Spokesman Phil Caruso said the extra shots were offered to local first responders, shop workers and also residents, many of whom are older than 65.
It was “an isolated situation in which the amount of vaccine doses requested by facilities exceeded the actual need,” Caruso told the Courier-Journal.
“These measures have been taken to ensure that each dose of a limited vaccine supply is used to protect patients and communities.”
It was not clear how many extra doses there were.
Caruso said Walgreens will reach out to those who received the leftover shots to make sure they also receive their second required vaccination.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said Monday that something similar happened at a Walgreens in Lexington last week – and he’s not happy about that.
The US is still using their limited amount of Pfizer and Modern vaccines, and health officials say it will take months before everyone has access to them.
“The response was not as it should have been,” Beshear said as the Kentucky pharmacies handled their extra doses.
‘Now, do I believe it came from a good place? “Yes, because they did not want any of it to go to waste,” he said. ‘But should it have been done differently? Yes. ”
The governor said the state, which requires first groups to be vaccinated, will work to ensure the right thing happens next time.
The development came after a Disney worker in California boasted on Facebook on December 20 that she also received the vaccination, even though she is not in any priority group, due to extra doses in the hospital where her husband’s ‘big deal’ aunt works. .