A malfunction of the freezer in Seattle created a race against the clock to ensure that the vaccines of the Modern COVID-19 fast-expiring vaccine did not go to waste.
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At around 9 pm on Thursday night, a freezer at Kaiser Permanente Washington containing about 1,600 first doses of the vaccine did not work well, according to The Seattle Times.
Hundreds of health professionals and volunteers immediately took action to ensure that no doses were missed – meaning that all doses should be administered by 5:30 am on Friday.
“I got a call this evening at 9 am and I heard that a Kaiser freezer was dropped and we could help vaccinate people before the doses expire at 5:30 am?” Jenny Brackett, an assistant administrator at the University of Washington Medical Center, said The times.
Swedish Medical Center and UW Medical Center split the doses and each posted on social media and reached local news stations to include the message in their broadcasts.
URGENT: We have 588 MODERN DOSE 1 services available January 28 from 11 pm to January 29 2 am Click the link to book For additional slots until 2 am, click on SHOW MORE and select TOMORROW. Must be Phase 1a or Phase 1B / Level 1. https://t.co/gtVkBKb9va pic.twitter.com/w3bKmQqbHk
– Swedish (@Swedish) January 29, 2021
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About 1,600 doses of the vaccine were administered frantically overnight
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Swedish Medical Center COO Kevin Brooks said the appointments available at his hospital were completed in 35 to 40 minutes, according to local NBC affiliate King 5 News.
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“We received a call from a partner hospital that there was a refrigerator problem and that 880 people needed to be vaccinated,” Brooks told the news station. “I got our team together, our vaccine team at Swedish, we got together at Microsoft Teams and came up with a plan and, 30 minutes later, we arrived at the site.”
Health officials told local media that they tried to vaccinate as many priority patients as possible, including the elderly and essential workers, but the main objective was to ensure that no doses were missed.
“We are doing the best we can to stay within the CDC and the governor’s guidelines on prioritization. At the same time, we want to ensure that no drops of the vaccine are wasted,” Brooks told King 5 News.
Tyson Greer, 77, had been waking up every day at about 1 am or 3 am for more than a week to search online for an open vaccination appointment, she said. The Seattle Times.
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She saw the warning and went to UW Medical Center – Northwest to finally get her first dose.
“Heaven,” said Greer to a Seattle Times reporter while waiting for vaccination.
Vaccines were being administered after 3 am, The Seattle Times reported.
It was unclear what caused the freezer to malfunction, but luckily all doses could be administered before they expired.
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