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More than 4,000 people who received vaccines at the Oakland Coliseum mass vaccination site on Monday may have received the wrong dose, according to a new report. Underdosing may not lead to problems with immunity to COVID, officials say, but it does mean that the syringes used result in at least 1,000 wasted doses of vaccine per day.
KTVU broke news of the matter on Wednesday, after medical staff working at the Colosseum site contacted the station, fearing the story had passed under the rug. These are inexpensive syringes that leave 0.05ml to 0.1ml of vaccine fluid behind when their plungers are fully depressed. Before site staff realized the problem on Monday afternoon, some 4,200 people had passed by and probably received less than the optimal dose of 0.3 ml of vaccine – somewhere between 0.2 ml and 0.25 ml, depending on how hard the person giving it depressed the plunger. .
The problem would have been corrected with the syringes filled a little more, but that means the vaccine continues to be wasted – and there are slightly more expensive spring-loaded syringes that could be used instead, according to medical staff.
KTVU says authorities at the California Bureau of Emergency Services and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the agencies managing the Coliseum site, were not notified of the issue until KTVU notified them on Tuesday. As reported by KTVU, “Cal OES spokesperson Brian Ferguson said that because whistleblowers had brought the issue to light, high-level meetings were held Tuesday afternoon between their agencies. , as well as the US Department of State of Public Health, Health, and Human Services and Pfizer., to determine what to do. “
Ferguson said all parties involved concluded that the vaccine remaining in the syringes was “negligible” and those vaccinated did not need to be made aware of the problem. Pfizer says that unless individuals are given less than half of the optimal amount, their immunity levels should not be affected.
Dr John Swartzberg, Emeritus Clinical Professor of Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology at UC Berkeley Public Health, tells KTVU the jury is still out, scientifically, on the impact of a lower first dose. And he suggests that people who may have received the smaller amount might consider getting the shot in a few months.
Yet the issue of vaccine wastage when we talk about this magnitude of wastage is a major concern at a time when vaccine stocks are still lagging behind. This week alone, we learned that Sutter Health has had to postpone more than 40,000 second dose appointments due to a supply delay. And restaurant workers in San Francisco and Alameda counties are scrambling to try to get vaccinated as restaurants reopen for indoor dining, but due to low supplies, most of them don’t. were unable to secure appointments as teachers also compete for priority access codes.
If each of these syringes leaves 0.05 ml to 0.1 ml of vaccine each time a vaccine is given, and assuming more than 7000 injections are given to them each day, that would mean that more than 1750 additional injections will be given. wasted every day because as long as the site continues to use these inexpensive syringes.
One of the KTVU sources who administer injections on the site says she now uses a mix of cheap syringes and less wasteful spring syringes.
Related: SF teachers and restaurant workers now wrangling over vaccine appointments, teachers getting first Dibs
Photo: Dennis Klicker
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