Utahn, 86, surprised by leftover COVID vaccine



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SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – An 86-year-old Utah woman received a late-night phone call that resulted in a COVID-19 vaccine.

It was a call Mary Ann Kershisnik hadn’t expected, but a call she welcomed with open arms.

“I don’t feel, you know, closed like a lot of people,” she said. “But it’s still very different.”

Kershisnik remained optimistic during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Among my friends, none of us got COVID,” she says. “A lot of people in the neighborhood have done it, but the older group, which we certainly are, did well in that regard, so we are very anxious to get our shots.

The 86-year-old great-grandmother’s prayers were answered two weeks ago.

“I was watching KSL News at 10 pm,” Kershisnik said. It was then that the phone rang with an unexpected offer that sent her rushing for the door.

It was a call from community nursing services, which work on a mission to provide vaccines to some schools and long-term care facilities.

“Community nursing services participate in the distribution of vaccines by assignment to health districts as well as by the state; Salt Lake County educators, Weber, Morgan. We also work with long-term care facilities across the state that are not getting service through a federal partnership with CVS, ”Community Nursing Services spokesperson Cory said. Fowlks. “No dose is wasted or expired. Every effort is made to ensure that each dose is administered to individuals after masked vaccinations. “

And at the end of the day, they had extra shots.

“[I think] they were making a school district. When they were done they had a city open with a few doses still there, and these had to be done at 1 am, ”Kershisnik said. “I think there were five left.”

Rather than let them get lost, they gave Kershisnik a chance to drive and get the shot.

“So we went to get vaccinated at 11 at night,” she said. “I thought it was wonderful. Rather than not using these doses, they would try to find people who would like to have them. We were, we were delighted.

The Davis County and Salt Lake Department of Health administers their own doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Davis County officials said they had increased their staff to treat patients at the Legacy Events Center in Farmington, where patients are “in and out of the building” within five minutes.

“We’re strategic with our planning at the end of the day to make sure we don’t have any remaining doses. We are discussing creating some sort of waiting list, but at the moment we have nothing of the sort. Plus, we didn’t have to dispose of vaccines that were not used by their expiration date, ”Davis County Department of Health spokesperson Trevor Warner said.

Salt Lake County Department of Health officials said their vaccination sites at the Mountain America Expo Center and Maverik Center were functioning well.

County spokesman Nicholas Rupp said the county had not expired on vaccines and none had been thrown away. They have a waiting list for no-show appointments so they don’t waste vaccines.

The Utah Department of Health reports that they have about 95 vaccines that have been thrown out statewide. UDOH spokeswoman Charla Haley said “most of it was due to broken vials or syringes. Several were administration errors when setting the dose. “



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