(CNN) – If she had waited until it was her “level” vaccination, Isabela Medina would not have received the covid-19 injection until late summer.
I was not prepared to wait.
Medina, a healthy 25-year-old, moved across the country to live with her parents on the East Coast after her job in the film industry ended. Medina wanted to return to work safely and decided to look for a vaccine in mid-January.
Medina was guarding a grocery store’s pharmacy. His goal was to get a leftover vaccine.
She and a friend arrived in the early afternoon, ready to wait. A line formed behind them. Hours later, when the appointments ended, the pharmacy staff offered eight leftover vaccines. Fortunately, Medina and his friend have claimed two.
“I felt good about it, and better that it wasn’t wasted,” he told CNN.
Medina is what many on the Internet describe as a “vaccine hunter,” that is, someone who stalks a pharmacy or a vaccination center in search of the remains.
These vaccine injectors, encouraged by reports of dose discarding and eager to speed up to the country, say they want to avoid waste by getting the vaccine sooner.
They see it as a win-win situation – they get vaccinated and a valued dose of the covid-19 vaccine doesn’t end up in the trash. But his gains are also a symptom of the lack of coordination in America’s vaccination plan. Initial deployment was much slower than expected, delaying President Joe Biden’s plan of “100 million vaccines in 100 days.”
The lucky – and privileged – few who get vaccinated before say that what they are doing is not wrong, although it certainly feels unfair to those who don’t have the time or resources to ‘track down’ their own dose.
Unsurprisingly, hunters have been criticized for “skipping the line.” But they argue that what they are doing is more ethical than letting vaccines expire.
“This could be a good way for people who haven’t been able to get around the logistical nightmare of signing up to just show up and get it,” Medina said.
Vaccine hunting is a ‘solution’ to slow vaccination
In all respects, the rollout of vaccination in the United States has been disappointing so far.
CNN Medical Analyst Dr. Leana Wen explained in sobering terms during an interview in January, before Biden’s inauguration, how disappointing that was. At the current rate, he said, it will take states 10 years to vaccinate 80% of Americans.
The current rate, one million vaccines per week, is nowhere near what it takes to achieve herd immunity by the summer of 2021.
And despite the incredibly high demand for vaccines, vaccination centers across the country have reportedly been throwing away valuable doses that were not delivered on time. (Both Pfizer and Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccines last for only a few hours without refrigeration. Pfizers expire within two hours of removing the vials from the refrigerator and Moderna’s within 12 hours.).
Hunting for vaccines means waiting hours of your life, possibly days, for a dose of a vaccine that may or may not be available. It’s a game of chance. It takes time, money, contacts and luck to be successful. But some say it’s worth it.
Brad Johnson, a medical student at Tulane University, wanted to make the search for vaccines a little easier.
Johnson is the manager of a Facebook group called “NOLA Vaccine Hunters,” in which New Orleans residents exchange tips and share tips on how much is left.
He said he got the idea after a friend who lived in Israel told him about Facebook groups in the country where residents inform each other about pharmacies that have extra doses.
“If an excess dose is about to expire, they ignore the vaccination schedule and offer it to everyone,” he told CNN.
So about three weeks ago, Johnson created such a tool for New Orleans. The group now has about 600 members.
Johnson said he has heard that some members have managed to find leftover vaccines for themselves or their parents.
The Facebook group is Johnson’s attempt to correct what he called a “mosaic of chaos” in the US vaccine distribution plan.
The United States is expected to reach 514,000 deaths from Covid-19 by February 20. Last Sunday, more than 20 million vaccines had been administered.
Biden has an ambitious goal of “100 million vaccines in 100 days.” Whether he will be successful remains to be seen as he has not been in office for another month. Some health officials believe their target is too modest, as Covid-19 cases continue to increase out of control.
The ethical dilemma facing vaccine injectors
Because the vaccine is so in demand and so difficult to find, even for those who qualify for it, there is a sense of injustice when otherwise healthy people get it, even though they are not technically stealing doses from people who do. so they need it, said Melissa Goldstein, an associate professor at George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health.
“There is a sense of injustice, although we cannot necessarily explain why,” Goldstein, who studies bioethics, told CNN.
There is no straightforward answer to the question of whether it is ethically justified to get the vaccine earlier, except in a few situations. Like the Hollywood doctor who told Variety that some of his rich and famous patients tried to bribe him to get the COVID-19 vaccine earlier, or the Washington state hospital that invited 100 donors to apply for the injection, regardless of their place in the “queue” .
However, what people did in those situations doesn’t compare to what happened in a Seattle hospital last week. There, a freezer breakdown resulted in 800 vaccines being lost in the space of hours. To keep the doses from expiring, they recruited recipients through social media.
And that situation is also different from that of “entrepreneurial” vaccine injectors, such as Medina and Johnson, who seek the remaining doses.
“Can we say entrepreneurship is an absolute mistake?” Said Goldstein. “It’s difficult because we have a capitalist and meritocratic system. We encourage people to network, to be elusive, persistent and determined to get what they want, ”he added.
It’s also a privilege to have the time and resources to spend hours looking for leftover doses, Goldstein said. If only the people who can afford it can get the vaccine early, the differences in how quickly the vaccine is delivered will get worse.
Johnson said some members of the Facebook group have even crossed state lines to get vaccinated.
Some traveled to rural Mississippi towns, where health departments struggled to divide all assigned doses because residents are reluctant to get vaccinated, he said.
According to him, it is not an ideal solution. But if “motivated people” are willing to get vaccinated, even if they weren’t at the time they were assigned their status, Johnson said he thinks they should.
“I am in favor of using the vaccines and not leaving them alone,” he said.
How to make early vaccination fair
The hunt for the Medina vaccine lasted three days. The young woman asked CNN not to disclose her location or the pharmacy where she had received the vaccine so as not to bombard them with possible ‘vaccine injectors’.
There were others like her who waited most of the afternoon.
On a TikTok of that day that has since been viewed more than 1.4 million times, she is seen dancing with a clipboard and cheerfully calling out to someone holding her vaccination card. In the phone call, he quotes Kamala Harris saying, “We did it, Joe!”
Her second dose is scheduled for the end of February.
Medina has no qualms about his decision. She works as a freelancer instead of a full-time job, so she was able to spend the time it took to get vaccinated.
“I really am in a socio-economically privileged position where I can wait all day for this vaccine,” he said. “Those vaccination centers need to do better and find a way to vaccinate the communities they are supposed to vaccinate,” he added.
There are some methods, Goldstein said, that could make early vaccinations a little more equitable.
Supermarket pharmacies may offer leftover vaccine doses to store employees. According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nearly 40% of them are black, Latino or Asian.
Black and Latino Americans receive the vaccine to a lesser extent than Caucasians. And as vital employees communicating face-to-face with customers, they need to protect themselves to get on with their jobs.
Some vaccination centers with decreasing extra doses took them to long-term care centers to vaccinate elderly residents and staff. These two populations are considered to be particularly vulnerable to covid-19.
And Biden has already unveiled a detailed COVID-19 strategy to replace the Trump administration’s failed response. His plan includes the establishment of vaccination centers in low-income communities.
Johnson is doing his part too. After weeks of trying to reach the Louisiana Department of Health, he said he had finally made it. Now, he said, he is working with state health officials to better coordinate who receives the leftover vaccines.
He hopes they can create an official vaccine waiting list that prioritizes health workers, the elderly and essential workers.
For now, however, support anyone who wants to get vaccinated, as long as they don’t skip the line.