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Wearing bathrobes, pajamas, or whatever they could quickly wear, hundreds of people flocked to be vaccinated against Covid Thursday night in Seattle after a refrigerator that cooled 1,600 doses broke down, leading to a frenzied vaccination campaign overnight.
The impromptu vaccinations began after a refrigerator malfunctioned at a Kaiser Permanente hospital in Seattle, meaning Moderna vaccines inside had to be injected quickly or they would become less effective and had to be thrown away. Health officials contacted two other hospital systems in the city and an urgent appeal went out around 11 p.m., alerting residents that they had a rare chance of getting the vaccine if they could come right away.
“We need to get those 1,600 doses into people’s arms within the next 12 hours,” Susan Mullaney, Kaiser’s Washington regional president, told a virtual press conference Friday, describing the hospital’s call to action.
Within minutes, there were long lines outside at least two medical centers, and by 3:30 a.m. the vaccines had all been administered, hospital officials said.
In interviews with local TV stations, arriving patients said they relaxed at home, washing dishes or watching the news when they saw that they suddenly had the chance. to get vaccinated. A couple said their daughter called after being in bed to say she had them signed up for a 1am date.
“We didn’t have time to get dressed, so I just came as I am,” the mother said, pointing to her husband, who was wearing a bathrobe.
The Seattle situation was just the latest case in which a disruption in the inoculation process forced health officials to give the vaccines to anyone they could find. It also highlights the challenge posed by the two vaccines that have so far been approved in the United States – both must be kept cold. Earlier this week, health workers stuck in a snowstorm in Oregon went from car to car, asking stranded drivers if they wanted an injection, after realizing that the doses they were carrying could expire in waiting on the highway.
Seattle hospital officials told local media they had tried to prioritize older patients and others who were already eligible for vaccines in the state, but said their first priority had been to distribute all vaccines before they expired.
“We are tired, but we are inspired,” Kevin Brooks, COO of Swedish Health Services, one of the two hospitals that administered the vaccines, said in a statement. “It was moving to see grannies in wheelchairs at 2 am getting vaccinated.”
Ms Mullaney, regional president of Kaiser, said all refrigerators and freezers at the Seattle site have since been tested and are all functioning properly.
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