In a Bay Area hospital, the supply of COVID-19 vaccine was cut off after doses were offered to teachers who were not in the state’s priority group.
The Good Samaritan Hospital in Santa Clara County will no longer receive the COVID-19 vaccine, after provincial officials learned that the hospital had given teachers from a nearby school district the chance to jump the vaccination line, which health workers and people who primarily prioritize 75 and older.
“We became aware of this email that went out and said that this special agreement for vaccination existed,” Santa RR James’ counsel said. a news conference Monday.
The hospital, in a wonderful gesture by our neighbors from Good Sam ‘, reached out to the Los Gatos Union School District, according to an email from staff sent by schools Supt. Paul Johnson it was acquired by the San Jose Spotlight, who first reported the story.
Johnson said he received the email from Good Samaritan on Wednesday night and notified staff the next day.
In the email, Johnson gave district workers a link to schedule an appointment, adding that hospital officials had cleared school staff to report to the vaccine as health workers.
“If there are no appointments available, they fill the site daily, if not more than once a day,” Johnson wrote. “Please go back.”
The school district raised money last year to provide meals to frontline workers in two hospitals, including the Good Samaritan.
The district later made it clear in a Facebook post that “Good Samaritan giving back a good deed” was a characterization by the superintendent.
The district, which serves kindergarten to eighth-grade students and has about 250 employees, is undergoing distance education, though it plans to begin a partial reopening from Feb. 1, pending the revision of its safety plan, Johnson said.
Williams called the actions of the Good Samaritan “very worrying” for several reasons.
The hospital appears to be ‘reaching out to a specific district’ based on the prevalence of ‘meals provided’, rather than for all school districts, Williams said.
California officials prefer vaccinations to health care workers, people living or working in long-term care facilities, and individuals 65 and older. Due to the scarcity of vaccine, Santa Clara County has raised the age limit and recommended it people older than 75 be vaccinated.
The vaccines have been in short supply in California since mid-December, while the state struggles a holiday-driven increase in coronavirus cases and deaths who raided hospitals and filled morgues.
The Good Samaritan Hospital said in a release on January 12 that it only provides vaccines to qualifying health workers in the country. At the time, Williams said, it had not yet reached the priority group of 75 years and older.
A week later, it appears that the hospital ‘affirmatively’ proposes that school district employees commit perjury by ‘registering themselves as if they were health workers,’ Williams said.
The hospital said in a statement on Saturday that it had incorrectly expanded its vaccination group to Tier 1b, which includes educators and child care workers, to avoid wasting vaccine doses that have already been thawed.
Williams, however, said the message conveyed by the school district, outlining the hospital’s plan, “is not related to wastage.”
Thawed doses of the Pfizer vaccine can be stored in the refrigerator for up to five days; the Moderna vaccine can be stored for up to 30 days. However, the Food and Drug Administration recommends that once the seal is pierced, both types should be used within six hours.
The province said it would give Good Samaritan enough vaccine for people who received the first of the two required doses to complete their vaccination. But the hospital will no longer receive until it provides ‘adequate insurance’ and a concrete plan to follow the guidelines of the state and province, Marty Fenstersheib, the test and vaccination officer of Santa Clara County, said in a Friday letter to the Good Samaritan Hospital said.
Hospital spokeswoman Sarah Sherwood has since canceled all scheduled appointments for teachers.
Good Samaritan was one of the 17 vaccination providers in Santa Clara County. It has administered approximately 77% of the 3,785 doses it has received so far and approximately 47% of the second doses. There are 537 appointments in the next seven days, according to the provincial vaccine panel.