David MacMillan was lucky in a dose of Covid vaccine from Moderna Inc. late on New Year’s Day. While shopping at Giant Food in Washington, DC, the 31-year-old legal assistant passed by the in-store pharmacist, who was in a hurry to find people taking two doses after a couple of health workers failed. -they met the program. The store was scheduled to close in 10 minutes, and thawed doses had to be discarded.
Two of the store’s associates and another customer have already declined the photos. Mr. MacMillan and his 25-year-old friend volunteered. “I was thrilled,” said Mr. MacMillan, whose post on TikTok about the experience went viral. “It’s like being told you won the lottery.”
As few supplies are slowly released to the public, there is sometimes an additional vaccine. The vials have a bonus dose or two if the vaccine sets have more effective syringes. Some people miss meetings and the shots have to be given so that the vaccine is not lost. Some vaccination sites are ready to fire new groups of people or want to move the vaccine along county or state lines to the place where people are waiting for it, only to be detained by local authorities. Occasionally, a freezer breaks, causing a run to get gunfire.
It is an additional layer of complexity for vaccination sites, as they struggle with the logistics of the largest vaccination campaign in history. The vaccine from Pfizer Inc. is stored below minus 76 degrees Fahrenheit and the Modern vaccine below 5 degrees Fahrenheit. Once thawed, none can be put back in the freezer.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said Tuesday that all people over the age of 65 and anyone with pre-existing conditions should be eligible for vaccination, releasing millions of doses it has retained for the second dose for workers in the field. health. Extensive eligibility will help vaccination sites find those they want. At the same time, some locations may not be able to manage photos as quickly as they would like due to staffing issues amid a winter increase in Covid-19 cases. And some may still face the problem of waste at the end of each day.