Some lucky Kentucky residents were able to skip the queue and get vaccines against COVID-19, because their local Walgreens had extra doses.
Louisville restaurant owner Andrew Masterson told the Courier-Journal that he was among those immunized, despite not being part of a priority group, after a friend told him there were shots of Pfizer at the local Walgreens.
“He called us and we ran upstairs,” Masterson said of him and his wife.
“It was pure luck,” added Masterson, whose wife has stage 4 cancer.
A Walgreens representative told the trade that while the vaccine would not normally be offered to the general public in front of groups such as front-line health workers and residents of residences, the pharmacy chain giant was dealing with the doses. that were left over.
The additional shots were offered to local lifeguards, store workers and also residents, many of whom are over 65, said spokesman Phil Caruso.
It was “an isolated situation in which the amount of vaccine doses requested by the facilities exceeded the real need,” Caruso told the Courier-Journal.
“These measures were taken to ensure that every dose of a limited supply of vaccine was used to protect patients and communities.”
It was not clear how many additional doses there were.
Caruso said Walgreens would contact those who received the leftover shots to make sure they also received the second necessary vaccination.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said Monday that something similar happened at the Walgreens in Lexington last week, and that he is not happy about it.
The U.S. continues to deploy its limited supply of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, and health officials say it will be months before everyone has access to them.
“The reaction wasn’t what it should have been,” Beshear said of how Kentucky pharmacies handled their extra doses.
“Now, I think it came from a good place? Yes, because they didn’t want anything to be lost, “he said. “But should it have been done differently? Yes. ”
The governor said the state, which requires priority groups to be vaccinated first, will work “to ensure the right thing happens next time.”
The development came after a Disney worker in California boasted on Facebook on December 20 that she also received the vaccine, although she is not part of any priority group, due to additional doses at the hospital where she works. “great thing” from her husband’s aunt. .