Colosseum vaccination site underdosing reports false, state officials say



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State officials oppose a TV report that says thousands of people vaccinated at Oakland Coliseum this week received doses smaller than they should be.

Citing two anonymous emergency medical technicians, KTVU reported on Wednesday that about 4,300 people who had been vaccinated at the Oakland Coliseum by 2 p.m. on Monday had “received the wrong vaccine doses” of the Pfizer vaccine because the syringes had left vaccine in. the bottom of the container instead. to inject it all.

State officials who run the clinic told The Chronicle that they recently started using a new type of syringe. But they firmly denied that anyone at the Colosseum received too few vaccines.

“We are not aware of any cases of under-vaccination of a single individual at the Oakland Coliseum site,” said Brian Ferguson, spokesperson for the California Office of Emergency Services, which operates the Coliseum site with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

State officials did not warn those vaccinated of any problems, they said, because there is no problem.

KTVU reported that paramedics said the syringes were “designed so that the plunger cannot reach all the way down,” leaving the syringes to deliver less than the full dose of vaccine.



The Food and Drug Administration recommends that the Pfizer vaccine be given in two doses of 0.3 milliliters each.

But a study from the New England Journal of Medicine indicates that people who receive 0.2ml of the vaccine will have about as much immunity to the virus as those who receive 0.3ml, said Dr George Rutherford, an epidemiologist at UCSF.

Other infectious disease experts contacted by The Chronicle declined to say whether they believe a smaller dose would be as effective as the full amount. All said that the vaccine manufacturer should answer such a question.

Pfizer declined to comment.

The Colosseum opened on February 16 as one of the first mass vaccination sites in California. Federal and state officials said the goal was to deliver up to 6,000 doses of vaccine per day at the site, but supply issues were an issue at the Colosseum and other vaccination sites.

The vaccine for the Colosseum comes from the federal government, not the state block allowance.

Michael Williams, Meghan Bobrowsky, and Catherine Ho are editors of the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

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