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Los Angeles County leaders released a statement Thursday evening clarifying a seemingly puzzling rule in the county’s vaccination plan: Healthcare providers should not throw away doses of the COVID-19 vaccine they opened for them. people who do not show up for their appointments.
“The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health does not tolerate wasted doses of valuable vaccines and has not ordered or asked suppliers to throw away unused doses,” officials said in the statement. “In fact, we moved quickly to set up rapid rotation vaccination clinics as soon as we learned of potential vaccine expirations.”
The statement follows two stories by TMZ about a clinic in Inglewood that provided 150 doses of the vaccine to people who did not meet the county’s vaccination criteria.
Currently, LA County uses a tiered immunization rollout plan, dictated by state health officials, that prioritizes healthcare workers and residents of nursing homes and other facilities. long-term care. (Although the state has expanded the criteria to allow residents 65 and older to be vaccinated, LA County officials have said they are not taking the plunge yet, in part because they haven’t had not enough doses.)
If a healthcare professional opens vials of COVID-19 vaccine but people do not show up for their appointments, doses may expire if not administered within a certain time frame.
LA County supervisor Janice Hahn, whose fourth district includes several beach towns, said in an interview with The Times that she was frustrated with the lack of a comprehensive vaccine rollout plan – which she has asked the county public health department to create in September – and overall, that more doses aren’t going to residents who need them.
“We have still distributed less than half of our allocated vaccines, and that is unacceptable to me,” Hahn said.
Health officials said in their statement that while the priority now is to vaccinate frontline healthcare workers and residents of long-term healthcare facilities, the LA County immunization plan helps to do so. exceptions to avoid wastage of vaccines.
The county public health department said it would investigate any reports of vaccine wastage or misuse.
“Los Angeles County is committed to vaccinating every resident who wishes to be protected from this deadly virus and is working with hundreds of partners to accelerate mass vaccine distribution operations to eligible groups of residents,” officials said. in the press release.
It is not known how many clinics, if any, have thrown away doses of the vaccine.
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