- A freezer accident resulted in a frantic effort to administer more than 1,600 vaccines overnight in Seattle, The Washington Post reported.
- Hundreds of people were left on the street in their robes and pajamas after the Swedish Health Service in Seattle tweeted at 11 pm that it had vaccines that were about to expire in a few hours.
- The workers administered all injections on time and no doses were missed.
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Staff and volunteers at a Seattle health facility struggled to inject coronavirus vaccines into 1,600 people who were rapidly expiring after a freezer failed, The Washington Post reported.
The malfunction of the freezer meant that Modern vaccines would expire on the morning of January 29, so Seattle Swedish Health Service officials rushed to vaccinate as many people as they could. In the last 15 minutes, before the shooting ended, workers administered dozens of shots, mostly on the street. They reportedly injected the last injection at 3:45 am sharp.
At around 11pm on Thursday night, the medical center tweeted an urgent message saying he had hundreds of vaccine markings available in the next few hours before the doses expired. Hundreds of people showed up in their pajamas and dressing gowns, reported NBC-affiliated KING-TV.
Those in line were calling people they knew to take them down and give them a chance, the Post added.
“We were literally like … who can bring people here? People started texting and calling and we were just counting down, “Kevin Brooks, Swedish Health Services director of operations, told the Post.” Thirty-five. Thirty three … People were showing up and running down the hall. “
Brooks told KING-TV that all available consultations were completed in 35 to 40 minutes.
The vaccines, which were being stored at Kaiser Permanente, began to thaw after a refrigeration problem that affected vaccines in Sweden and those belonging to UW Medicine, the Post reported.
Jenny Brackett, an assistant administrator at UW Medicine, said that when she heard about the freezer accident, she was inspired by another recent case in which the vaccines almost went to waste. Earlier that week, after being trapped in a snowstorm, health professionals in Oregon vaccinated trapped drivers before their remaining doses of the coronavirus vaccine expired.
Although these vaccines were intended for other people, “the snow meant that these doses would not reach them until they expired,” said the Josephine County Department of Public Health in Oregon.
Brackett told the Post: “When I got the call, they said, ‘It’s like our snowy moment’.”
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Brackett said he was going through a long line looking for people 65 and older so they could be prioritized.
“I was a little concerned that the line might not be very lively,” she said. “You know, I’m letting the others go first. But that was not the answer I got. In fact, the crowd kind of applauded.“
Although not everyone who was vaccinated was in the state’s top priority category, the center said they would still be eligible to receive their second dose, and they are happy that nothing was wasted.