Fortune hit one man in the bakery in the supermarket. Two others worked the night shift at a Subway sandwich shop. Another was picked from a list of 15,000 hopefuls.
While millions of Americans are waiting for their chance to get the coronavirus vaccine, a few lucky ones are bumped in front of the line while clinics scramble to get rid of extra, perishable doses at the end of the day.
It is often about the right time in the right place.
Sometimes people who happen to be near a clinic near closing time are offered leftover shots that would otherwise be thrown away. Sometimes health workers go in search of recipients. Some places keep waiting lists and randomly sign names. Such opportunities may be more appreciated as US deficits lead parties to cancel vaccinations.
“One of the nurses said I should just go and buy a lottery ticket,” Jesse Robinson said this week outside a clinic in Nashville, Tennessee, where the 22-year-old was selected from a list of 15,000 names. ‘I’m not going to question it too much. Just glad it was me. ”
David MacMillan was grabbing ingredients for a coconut-chickpea dish at a Giant grocery store in Washington when a woman in a laboratory coat from the pharmacy approached him and his friend.
‘I received two doses of Moderna vaccine. The pharmacy closes in ten minutes. Do you want them? ‘MacMillan, 31, said the woman. “I thought, ‘Let’s go for it. ”
After MacMillan posted a video of his experience on TikTok, the supermarket chain was flooded for days with calls and people hanging around hoping to get a shot.
It has become one of the most unusual peculiarities in the often uneven, month-long implementation of the COVID-19 vaccines.
Once a vial has been thawed from the freezer, and even more, once the seal has been pierced and the first dose drawn, those administering the vaccine want to use it before it is spoiled, even if it means shots to those not in the priority list does not fit.
While it can be disturbing to see a 20-year-old shoot while a 90-year-old woman is still waiting in a nursing home, it’s better to throw a dose into someone’s arm, someone’s arm, than to throw it to throw away.
“As for me, someone other than the dog needs to be vaccinated,” said Dr. William Schaffner, an expert in infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University, said.
In New York City, a rumor that the Brooklyn Army Terminal had extra doses caused a rush to the vaccine distribution site, resulting in bumper-bumper traffic in the streets and a line of hundreds on the sidewalks until the police came out to say they were already misleading.
Mike Schotte, 53, and his 72-year-old mother showed up at pharmacies near their home in Hurst, Texas, hoping to get a surplus. Eventually, they put their names on a waiting list and call them that shots may be available if they arrive within half an hour.
“We did not have to go too fast, but it was pretty close,” Schotte said. “I’m excited I got it.”
Nashville has started its lottery system to avoid more random ways to spread remaining shots. In one case, the city’s health department finally gave extra doses to two workers at a subway restaurant in a nearby hospital last month so they would not go to waste.
Vaccination clinics expect only a few doses left on a given day. Suppliers also note that the chance of remaining shots becoming available to the general public decreases with each passing week, as admission to the vaccine is greater than the very old, nursing home residents and front-line medical workers.
Waste is common in global inoculation campaigns, with millions of doses of flu shots being taken away each year. According to one estimate by the World Health Organization, more than half of all vaccines are discarded because they have been mishandled, unclaimed or expired. The effects of the coronavirus appear to have promoted the trend.
Although federal data is not available, health authorities in various jurisdictions contacted by The Associated Press have reported very little wastage, except for a few notable cases of doses being accidentally or intentionally spoiled.
In Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, the Department of Health reported that only three of 87,750 doses were wasted, accidentally wasted by staff. In Ohio, officials said 165 of 459,000 doses distributed last week were damaged or lost, discarded as a result of non-vaccination or otherwise wasted. New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Houston and other cities and states all also reported small fractions of waste.
“It’s like gold in Fort Knox,” says Dr. Ramon Tallaj, whose network SOMOS administered the vaccine in New York City.
Those who give the vaccines choreograph a complicated dance to ensure they are handled properly. Vials with the Pfizer vaccine contain five doses – and sometimes an extra – and Moderna contains 10. And clinics try their best not to open a new container unless a registered recipient plans to be vaccinated.
At a clinic on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, Jill Price said the end of the day was approaching, and if some doses seemed to be left over, the next day they would be called to those registered for vaccinations to see if they can enter. immediately.
“It’s such a precious brand that no one wants to waste it,” Price said.
___
Associated Press author Kristin M. Hall contributed from Nashville, Tennessee.