Some California hospitals are violating federal guidelines on the distribution of inoculating vaccines to relatives of workers who are not first-line health care providers or first aiders.
Hospitals say many vaccine-eligible employees turn down the opportunity, leaving dozens of doses of the vaccine thawed and damaged. Instead of wasting the vaccine, the hospital allowed some employees to contact their families for inoculation.
Hospitals insist the first assistants were targeted for the vaccine before the workers’ relatives were inoculated.
OC record:
A former national leader in emergency management, who asked not to be identified, said this week that just before Christmas, a family member working at Southern California Hospital invited members of his family to receive Pfizer vaccines on site.
The woman provided the Southern California newsgroup with text messages from the hospital showing her appointment and subsequent inoculation. He is scheduled to return to the hospital in January to receive a second dose of the vaccine.
“The hospital had planned to vaccinate all its employees, but a large number of its staff rejected it and they were sitting on many thawed vaccines,” the woman said, explaining what the hospital staff told her. “They offered police officers, firefighters and first aid to get vaccinated and also told employees they could invite four family members.”
Not surprisingly, the news spread and the hospital was flooded with pleas for the vaccine, prompting the facility to try to inoculate police and firefighters instead of family and friends.
“In the face of thawed vaccines, which expire and cannot be frozen, and without any contingency plan, doctors chose to vaccinate as many people as they could,” he said. “This is what doctors do, save lives. This is what happens in disasters. Situations are constantly changing and people need to make commanding decisions to save as many lives as possible within their current capacity. Hospitals are overflowing with lives and don’t have time to stop and create a new vaccine distribution plan for a small amount of vaccine that is about to expire. “
Part of the problem seems to be poor planning by at least one hospital. Apparently, they ordered too much vaccine to inoculate their workers, which left a considerable amount of doses.
“The excess could not be returned to the distribution center,” he said in an email. “The instructions provided with the vaccine indicated that the vaccine has a shelf life of five days when removed from the approved freezer. The distribution center indicated that the vaccine should not be stored in dry ice or transport freezers. The whole vaccine had to be used within five days or wasted. ”
After inoculating all hospital employees who requested the vaccine, staff contacted doctors treating patients at the facility, as well as local lifeguards, including police, firefighters and emergency medical technicians to inform them of vaccine availability, according to Gilbert. In addition, some public service workers were also vaccinated.
I guess we should expect this kind of snafus, especially in the beginning. Still, it is worrying that hospitals are not finding enough police and firefighters who want to be inoculated. It makes us think that they haven’t really put in enough effort.
As for those who don’t want to get vaccinated, this is their choice. Frankly, it leaves more vaccines for those who want to inoculate them, that is, they will get the dose sooner.