SEATTLE (AP) – Seattle hospitals released COVID-19 vaccines to hundreds of people in the middle of the night after a freezer where they were stored failed.
It’s unclear what caused the freezer to fail Thursday night, but the Northwest and Montlake campuses at UW Medical Center and the Swedish Medical Center received more than 1,300 doses that needed to be used before they expired at 5:30 p.m. on Friday morning, The Seattle Times reported.
News of the unexpected doses spread on social media and a line of hopeful vaccine recipients snaked through the clinic door and through a parking lot at UW Medical Center-Northwest. A hundred people lined up at the University of Seattle’s Swedish Medical Center clinic. The hospital tweeted at 11:59 p.m., which had 588 doses to administer, and by 12:30 p.m., all time slots had been taken.
At UW Medical Center-Northwest, Assistant Administrator Jenny Brackett walked through the crowd shouting and asking if anyone was over 65 years old. Many of those who showed up were too young and healthy to qualify under Washington State’s current prioritization categories for vaccine distribution. Brackett said the hospital was doing everything possible to vaccinate those eligible, but that the main goal was to put him to arms and prevent waste.
Anyone who received a first shot Thursday night will also receive the second shot on the two-dose regimen, regardless of age, said Cassie Sauer, president of the Washington State Hospital Association.
A woman ripped from the crowd at UW-Northwest Medical Center, 77-year-old Tyson Greer, said she had been waking up for more than a week at 1 a.m. or 3 p.m. to search online for the desired ones. vaccination appointments. Finally, she was shot at 1 a.m. Friday by Associate Nursing Director Keri Nasenbeny.
Many of the employees who worked at the vaccination clinic had been working since 7 a.m. Thursday, Nasenbeny said.
When he received news of the freezer failure, he called several nurses, who in turn hired pharmacists and other volunteers. A Seattle firefighter appeared to come out of nowhere to help, and the groom of a hospital staff member helped manage the queue.
Those who got the vaccine were thanked. Sarah Leyden, 57, learned the shots were available from his wife, a hairdresser, who learned of a client who was a nurse.
“I just got lucky,” Leyden said.