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A freezer malfunction at Kaiser Permanente on Thursday led to an impromptu effort to vaccinate people who might show up in the middle of the night.
Once the problem was discovered, 800 doses of the Moderna vaccine were given to UW Medicine, and nearly 600 were given to the Swedish Medical Center.
The Swedish hospital tweeted that people needed to come for the vaccine.
“URGENT: We have 588 DOSE 1 MODERNA appointments available from January 28, 11 pm to January 29, 2 am Click on the link to book. For additional time slots until 2 a.m., click on VIEW MORE and select TOMORROW. Must be phase 1a or phase 1B / level 1. “
These levels include essential workers and the elderly awake at this time of night. Early in the morning, those levels wouldn’t matter.
People came in droves – by car, on foot, ready to spend hours under cover of darkness and a garage.
At 2 am, people get tired of standing and sit on the concrete. Hospital staff would drop by periodically to count how many people were left and how many would be vaccinated at night. It looked like they had dealt with about half the group there.
At 3 a.m., staff said there were about 30 shots left, but they would expire at 3:30 a.m. Police, students, anyone could get them now. This includes this reporter who was among the last to be vaccinated and managed to wake another person up to come at the last minute, after a series of late-night phone calls.
As night turned to morning, other staff entered and cheered on the night crew. Their efforts were not in vain: no vaccine was wasted.
At a press conference Friday, Dr Jeff Duchin of Public-Health Seattle King County said he was proud of the collaborative effort among the three health care providers.
“We told them [health care workers] that it would be better to give this vaccine to someone who was not eligible if they could not find enough eligible people in the middle of the night, rather than throwing it away. It’s the last thing we want to do. “
There have been other stories of unexpected vaccine availability, with pharmacists calling over the phone to say vaccine doses are available before the store closes.
Recently, a vaccination team in Josephine County, Oregon got stuck on a snowy highway and went from car to car until they found people willing to receive the vaccine.
Kaiser Permanente says they inspect all of their refrigerators to make sure they are working properly.
Starting February 1, King County will also open two new vaccination sites in Auburn and Kent. Public health claims to have enough vaccines for 500 people per day, 6 days a week, in an effort to serve those most exposed to Covid-19 and who face barriers to accessing the vaccine through health systems traditional.
If you are eligible for a vaccine, sign up here for an appointment.
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