While demand for the COVID-19 vaccine is growing amid scarce supply, there are stories circulating about pharmacies, hospitals and mass vaccination sites distributing overdoses to people who are just in the right place at the right time. There is also a lot of talk about waiting lists that vaccination posts use when they need to dispense doses that are likely to expire.
All of this is based on the theory that some people don’t come to the appointments or something goes wrong, like a freezer that breaks, and there is a surplus of unclaimed vaccines that need to be administered before they go bad.
East Bay resident Ben Lindorfer received a tip from his partner that the Oakland Coliseum – where about 6,000 doses are administered per day – distributes the leftover vaccine at the end of the day to people who come by appointment.
“I don’t want it to be thrown away,” said Lindorfer. “If they are playing away and there is an opportunity for me to wait, I am happy to wait.”
Lindorfer arrived at the checkpoint last Thursday at 5:30 pm and said he was informed by an official that they did not have any extra vaccines.
A friend went 15 minutes later and was instructed to show up at 6 pm or 6:30 pm for the vaccine leftovers. Lindorfer returned at 7 pm and there were about a dozen people waiting for extra doses.
“A gentleman in an FEMA attack said there was no leftover vaccine,” said Lindorfer. “He said that if they had leftovers, they would throw it out.”
(Editor’s note: Cal OES spokesman Brian Ferguson said the Oakland Coliseum is a junk-free place.)
It is not surprising that people are following clues about unclaimed shots, as there are several stories reported in the media about people who mark inadvertent vaccines. When a refrigerator broke down at a Mendocino County hospital, 850 doses of Pfizer that required refrigerated storage were distributed from a church and health clinics on a first-come, first-served basis. A public health worker caught in the snow in Oregon drove from car to car giving drivers doses that would expire in six hours, the New York Times reported.
While these stories are true, the likelihood of getting the excess vaccine seems small. It is especially unlikely if you are not currently qualified for the California prioritization framework that advises counties to give doses to healthcare professionals, seniors aged 65 and over, and essential workers in education, food, agriculture or law enforcement.
The Oakland Coliseum vaccination site in Alameda County is run by Cal OES, and spokesman Brian Ferguson said any extra vaccines are distributed to eligible people through a “call list”.
“We try to be careful when distributing vaccines and monitor the number of injections we will need on any given day. If we are getting close to the end of the day and have extras, we have a list of on-call people who are eligible who can come and have one chance. We are working through eligible community partners, health professionals, law enforcement agencies, groups of teachers. “
Kaiser Permanente and Sutter Health, the two main healthcare providers that administer vaccines in the bay area, said the vaccine non-attendance rate is extremely low and places are bowing to ensure that no doses are missed.
“Generally, cancellations are filled very quickly, even on the same day,” said Kaiser in a statement. “We monitor our doses closely and we can call members who are booked the next day or later to come early.”
“In cases where there is cancellation of appointments or vaccine remaining at the end of the day, we contact patients scheduled to come early,” said Sutter.
SFGATE also contacted all nine counties in the Bay Area to ask if they had too much vaccine, to distribute extra doses at vaccination sites or to throw away unused vials. We also ask whether they keep waiting lists to expedite the distribution of excess vaccines at risk of expiration.
We received news from all counties and here’s what they said.
Alameda County
The county said it did not waste a single dose or vial of vaccine anywhere operated by the county.
“We monitor open vials and reconcile the doses collected approximately two hours before the closure of the POD to ensure that open vials are not left unused,” said county spokesman Neetu Balram by email. “We have waiting lists for those who have appointments coming in and who can respond quickly if we have doses left after our appointments. We don’t vaccinate people out of level.”
Contra Costa County
The county said that 2% of people with an appointment do not attend. “When doses become unexpectedly available, we have a policy that establishes a process for calling people on our waiting list,” said the county. “We do not encourage people without an appointment to meet near our clinics.”
Marin County
Marin County said that between 5% and 10% of people with a vaccine indication do not attend. The county said in a statement that it assumes that people do not show up because they have not received a confirmation from PrepMod (the county nomination system), set up a meeting elsewhere, did not meet the criteria, but scheduled anyone who expected a change in the date consultation, positive test for COVID and delay in vaccination or family emergency.
“We track our non-attendance rate throughout the day to prevent these doses from being withdrawn,” County spokesman Laine Hendricks wrote in an email. “Again, in the rare case of missed doses, we try to work with clinics or hospitals nearby (for example, MarinHealth Medical Center) to ensure that doses are used properly.”
The county said it does not maintain a waiting list, but has a “vaccine interest form” that it can use if necessary. Any resident can self-register and identify that they want to be vaccinated.
“While any member of the general public can apply, we only involve those qualified to receive the vaccine according to our current vaccine prioritization,” said the county. “The form allows us to target vulnerable populations or communities of color that have not yet been vaccinated.”
Napa County
The county said it has few cases of no-show and a process in place to manage any potential impacts of no-show involving intentional needle withdrawals one at a time during the last hour of our clinics. He did not report any waste.
“We have a well-established list of county interests, used to prioritize vaccine appointments according to state guidance,” wrote county spokeswoman Janet Upton in an email. “For each clinic, we identify people who do not have an appointment on this list and ask them to be available if there are surpluses.”
San Francisco
The San Francisco Department of Health said it does not track cancellations at locations run by major health care providers or at neighborhood clinics.
“San Francisco health providers, who distribute two-thirds of vaccines in SF, and the Department of Public Health operate on the basic guideline that no vaccine should be wasted,” the COVID Command Center, which manages the response to city pandemic, said in a statement. “Therefore, people are required to make appointments and cancel if they are unable to attend. All vaccination sites administered by different health care providers have different protocols, but they aggressively plan to ensure that the vaccine is not wasted. Many vaccination entities link the list, those who are eligible, who can be asked to be vaccinated at the end of the day. Almost 100% of vaccines received each week are allocated for use the following week. “
San Mateo County
San Mateo County said it sees a 4% to 9% rate of consultations that need to be canceled due to ineligibility, lack of need because the individual received the vaccine elsewhere, no show or other problems.
“We have a team continuously working on the appointment list throughout the day of the clinic, to ensure that only eligible recipients are on it and on track to arrive on time,” wrote Preston Merchant, a county spokesman in a statement. “As part of this process, we also create waiting lists for qualified recipients who can receive any unused dose at the end of the day. The waiting list is created from the list of targeted appointments and is not open to the public. We do not accept additions to the waiting list or allow anyone to wait at a location hoping to get the vaccine later in the day. “
Santa Clara County
The county said it has a no-show rate of around 10%. “This rate is consistent with what we see in general in healthcare,” wrote the county by email. “We hope that 10-15% of people who make an appointment will miss them for one reason or another, and we built our system around that assumption so that absences do not result in wasted or poorly distributed doses. This includes building a buffer for overbooking ‘commitments to account for that. “
The county said the waste is minimal; his most recent data on February 22 revealed that 506 doses of 413,233 total doses administered were wasted, or 0.12%.
“Not all of these doses were expired doses; some may have been reported as missed due to other reasons, including defective syringes or needles, problems reconstituting, diluting or taking doses, or other reasons,” said the county.
The said he has procedures in place to protect against vaccine waste in the rare cases where more doses are thawed than can be used in people who come to the appointments.
The municipality of Santa Clara has no waiting list.
Solano County
Solano County said “the overwhelming majority of residents attend their appointments”.
At the end of vaccination events, if there is a vaccine remaining, the county’s Emergency Medical Services team transports it to a long-term care unit that recently received new employees or residents, according to Jose Caballero, a county spokesman. .
The county maintains a waiting list that “is generated from the registration form when maximum capacity is reached,” said Caballero. “Only eligible residents can be placed on the waiting list for our vaccination events.”
The county requests that people without vaccine schedules who have not been notified of the waiting list do not appear at vaccine venues and events.
Sonoma County
Sonoma County said it is not monitoring the number of people who do not attend vaccination visits. “We have a few, but, anecdotally, not many, and we understand that it is mainly due to the people who book multiple bookings and choose the one that is most convenient, while forgetting to cancel the one they don’t use,” county spokesman Matt Brown wrote in an email. “So, we are encouraging people to cancel appointments that they know they are not going to use to release those appointments to other people.”
Brown said that if a clinic has doses left over later in the day, it is put back in the refrigerator to use the next day or sent to other clinics that need a supply.
“As our demand is high, there are rarely, if ever, cases of unused vaccines after the expiration date. The only time we will need to use the vaccine is if we have an open bottle at the end of the day ”. he said. “Closed bottles can be stored for later, but open bottles should be used that day. The bottles contain five or six doses each. So if we open a new bottle for the last appointment of the day, we will have a maximum of five doses that we need to use it. Some clinics have a list of eligible patients who can receive them, usually people who have future appointments. We do not recommend attending a clinic in the hope of receiving an extra dose. “