Fortune struck a man in the aisle of the supermarket bakery. Two others worked night shifts at a Subway sandwich shop. Another was snatched from a 15,000-hope list.
With millions of Americans waiting for their chance to receive the coronavirus vaccine, a lucky few hit the front line as clinics struggle to get rid of extra, perishable doses at the end of the day.
It is often a matter of being in the right place at the right time.
Sometimes people who happen to be near a clinic at closing time are offered leftover photos that would otherwise be thrown away. Sometimes health workers go out in search of recipients. Some places keep waiting lists and draw random names. Such opportunities could be increasingly appreciated as the lack of the US leads some places to cancel vaccinations.
“One of the nurses said I should go buy a lottery ticket right now,” Jesse Robinson said outside a clinic in Nashville, Tennessee, this week, where the 22-year-old was chosen from a list of 15,000 names to be shot. “I am not going to ask him too much. I’m glad it was me. “
David MacMillan was picking up ingredients for a coconut chickpea meal at a giant grocery store in Washington when a woman in a lab coat from the store’s pharmacy came to him and his friend.
“I received two doses of Moderna vaccine. The pharmacy closes in 10 minutes. Do you want them? “MacMillan, 31, remembered what the woman was saying.” I thought, ‘Let’s go for this.’ “
After MacMillan posted a video of his experience on TikTok, the supermarket chain was flooded for days with calls and people hanging out, hoping to score.
He became one of the most unusual weirdos in the often uneven launch of COVID-19 vaccines for a month.
Once a bottle is thawed from the frost and even more so once its seal is perforated and the first dose is removed, those who administer the vaccine are in a race to consume it before it spoils ̶ even if it means that those which does not fall within the list of priorities.
While it can be annoying to see a 20-year-old man shooting himself while a 90-year-old woman in a nursing home is still waiting, public health experts say it’s better to take a dose in someone’s arm, in someone’s arm.
“As for me, vaccinate anyone but the dog,” said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University.
In New York City, a rumor that the Brooklyn Army Terminal had extra doses triggered a rush to the vaccine distribution site, leading to the traffic of the bumper on the streets and a line of hundreds on the sidewalks until police came out to say they had been fooled.
Mike Schotte, 53, and his 72-year-old mother began appearing at pharmacies near their home in Hurst, Texas, hoping to receive a remnant. They finally put their names on a waiting list and got a call saying the photos might be available if they arrive in half an hour.
“We didn’t have to accelerate, but it was pretty close,” Schotte said. “I’m glad I did.”
Nashville has started its lottery system to avoid more random ways of distributing the remaining photos. In one case, last month, the city’s health department ended up giving extra doses to two workers at a Subway restaurant in a nearby hospital so they wouldn’t get lost.
Vaccine clinics expect only a few doses left, at most, in a given day. Providers also note that the chances of photo scraps becoming available to the general public diminish as the week goes on, as vaccine eligibility extends beyond former nursing home residents and front-line nurses.
Waste is common in global inoculation campaigns, with millions of doses of flu vaccines thrown away each year. According to an estimate by the World Health Organization, more than half of vaccines are discarded because they have been mishandled, unclaimed or expired. The launch of the coronavirus seems to have reduced the trend.
Although federal data are not available, health authorities in various jurisdictions contacted by The Associated Press have reported very little waste beyond a few notable cases of doses that were accidentally or deliberately pampered.
In Cook County, Chicago, Illinois, the health department reported that only three of the 87,750 doses were wasted, each accidentally spilled by staff. In Ohio, officials said 165 of the 459,000 doses distributed since last week were damaged or lost in transit, discarded due to vaccine failure or otherwise wasted. New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Houston and other cities and states reported similarly small fractions of waste.
“It’s like gold in Fort Knox,” said Dr. Ramon Tallaj, whose network of SOMOS doctors administer the vaccine in New York City.
Those who administer the vaccines choreograph a complicated dance to make sure they are treated correctly. Pfizer vaccine vials contain five doses – and sometimes an additional one – and Moderna contains 10. And clinics are trying their best not to open a new container unless they have a registered recipient scheduled to be inoculated.
At a clinic on the island of Kauai in Hawaii, Jill Price said that as the end of the day draws to a close, if some doses appear to be left, calls will be made to those registered for vaccinations the next day to see if they can enter immediately.
“It’s such a precious commodity, no one wants to waste it,” Price said.
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Associated Press writer Kristin M. Hall contributed from Nashville, Tennessee.