Some California hospitals violate federal guidelines for the distribution of vaccines by vaccinating family members of employees who are not primary care providers or first responders.
The hospitals say many workers who qualify to be vaccinated refuse the opportunity, leaving dozens of doses of the vaccine thawed and tainted. Instead of wasting the vaccine, the hospital allowed some employees to contact their families for vaccinations.
The hospitals insist that emergency responders were targeted by the vaccine before employees’ family members were vaccinated.
OC Register:
A former national emergency response leader, who asked not to be identified, said this week that just before Christmas a family member who works at Southern California Hospital had invited members of her family to get Pfizer vaccines at the facility. .
The woman provided the Southern California News Group with text messages from the hospital detailing her appointment and subsequent vaccination. She is scheduled to return to the hospital in January to receive a second dose of the vaccine.
“The hospital planned to vaccinate all of their employees, but a lot of their staff declined and they were on a lot of thawed vaccines,” the woman said, explaining what the hospital staff told her. “They offered police officers, firefighters and first responders to get vaccinated and also told employees they could invite four family members.”
Not surprisingly, the news spread and the hospital was inundated with pleas for the vaccine, leading the facility to attempt to vaccinate police and firefighters instead of family members and friends.
“Faced with thawed, expiring vaccines that cannot be refrozen, and no contingency plan, doctors have made the choice to vaccinate people who they could,” she said. “That’s what doctors do, save lives. That is what happens in disasters. Situations are in constant flux and people have to make command decisions to save as many lives as possible within their current capacity. Hospitals are overwhelmed to save lives and have no time to stop and start a new vaccine distribution plan for a small amount of vaccine that is about to expire. “
Part of the problem seems to be the poor planning of at least one hospital. They apparently ordered too much vaccine to inoculate their workers, leaving a significant number of doses.
“The excess could not be returned to the distribution center,” she said in an email. “Instructions with the vaccine indicated that the vaccine can be kept for five days after removal from the approved freezer. The distribution center indicated that the vaccine should not be stored in dry ice or transport freezers. All the vaccine had to be used within five days or would be lost. “
After inoculating all hospital employees who applied for the vaccine, staff contacted physicians treating patients at the facility, as well as local first responders, including police officers, firefighters and emergency medical personnel to inform them of the availability of the vaccine, Gilbert said . In addition, some public service officials were also vaccinated.
I suppose we should expect these kinds of snafus, especially in the beginning. Still, it is alarming that the hospitals were unable to find enough police and firefighters to be vaccinated. It makes us think they really haven’t tried hard enough.
As for those who don’t want to be vaccinated, that’s their choice. In all fairness, it leaves more vaccines for those who do want to get vaccinated, meaning they get their dose earlier.