David MacMillan was lucky enough to take a dose of Covid vaccine from Moderna Inc. at the end of New Year’s Day. While grocery shopping at Giant Food in Washington, DC, the 31-year-old jurist passed by the in-store pharmacist who was struggling to find prey for two doses after a couple of health workers were absent from the appointment. The store was scheduled to close in ten minutes and thawed doses would have to be taken out.
Two of the store associates and another customer had already turned down the shots. Mr. MacMillan and his 25-year-old friend were volunteer volunteers. “I was delighted,” Mr. MacMillan said, whose message to TikTok about the experience went viral. “It’s like they tell you you won the lottery.”
Because scarce supplies are slowly spreading to the public, there are sometimes additional vaccines. Vials have an additional dose or two if vaccine kits have more efficient syringes. Some people miss appointments and have to give away their shots so the vaccine is not lost. Some vaccination sites are prepared to shoot new groups of people or want to move the vaccine to county or state lines to where people are waiting, but only local authorities will detain them. Sometimes a freezer breaks and causes a run to get shots in the arms.
It is an additional layer of complexity for vaccination sites, as they struggle with the logistics of the largest vaccination campaign in history. The Pfizer Inc. Vaccine is stored at less than 76 degrees Fahrenheit and the Modern vaccine at less than 5 degrees Fahrenheit. Once thawed, it cannot 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 the shot, releasing millions of doses it has retained for second doses for health care workers. . Expanding eligibility will help vaccination sites find people who want to do so. At the same time, some locations may not be able to manage shots as quickly as they would like, due to personnel issues amid a winter wave in Covid-19 cases. And it is possible that some will still face the problem of waste at the end of each day.