A second California hospital has been turned down for giving the Pfizer / BioNTech coronavirus vaccine to relatives of its employees, rather than using the doses for seniors or front-line workers.
The Southern California hospital allowed its workers to invite relatives to get vaccinated, as did another hospital in the area last week, which sparked criticism.
“The hospital had planned to vaccinate all of its employees, but a large number of its staff turned down and were sitting on many thawed vaccines,” a vaccinated woman at the Southern California Hospital told the Orange County Register. “They offered police officers, firefighters and first aid to get vaccinated and also told employees they could invite four family members.”
Culver City Hospital was eventually flooded with requests from the general public and was forced to re-vaccinate only front-line workers.
Any decision by a hospital to treat staff members is contrary to the guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control, which call for them to be inoculated during the stages following the deployment of the vaccine.
The Southern California Hospital is the second rejected facility in Golden State to give “additional” doses of vaccine to family members.
Earlier this week, a Disney worker in California bragged on Facebook that she was able to get the vaccine because of a father-in-law who was a “big problem” at Redlands Community Hospital.
“After the administration of doctors and staff who expressed interest in the vaccine, several doses were left,” the hospital said in the record. “Because the reconstituted Pfizer vaccine is to be used within a few hours or disposed of, several doses were administered to front-line health workers so that a valuable vaccine would not be released.