A hospital system has given COVID vaccines to about two dozen wealthy donors, healers and people who were relatives of executives and supervisors at a time when only health workers and nursing home residents were eligible, according to a published report.
The report, published by New Jersey 101.5, claimed that Hunterdon Medical Center distributed vaccines to people connected to the hospital while implantation in the state was starting in December and early January.
The report, based on a vaccine registration document provided to the news organization by a whistleblower, indicated that young adult children of hospital executives and supervisors were also able to be vaccinated at a time when only healthcare professionals in the forward and long-term long-term care residents were eligible for vaccines.
The hospital said some people received injections because extra doses were left at the end of the day.
“In the early days of vaccine administration, when we had extra doses at the end of a day at the clinic due to no-shows or because our pharmacists had successfully extracted more doses from each vial than expected, we did our best to ensure that these doses went to someone’s arm instead of being unused, ”Kathleen Seelig, a spokesman for the Hunterdon Healthcare System, told NJ Advance Media.
She said the facility first looked for “doctors and made sure that all health workers in the entire system who wanted the vaccine would receive it.”
“If doses remained available after all available health workers were vaccinated, then, and only then, did we immediately reach out to others, who first included family members of clinic professionals followed by volunteers, which included some board members, community members and executives, ”she said. “We believed, and still believe, that it was better to vaccinate someone available to us than to allow any vaccine to go to waste. We also confirmed this protocol with the Department of Health, which has repeatedly instructed health organizations to put the vaccine on the guns. “
Hunterdon Healthcare said it had administered more than 8,000 doses of vaccine to doctors, the elderly and individuals at risk as of this week. He said he can deliver up to 7,000 doses a week, once the supply is available.
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When Governor Phil Murphy was asked about the report during his coronavirus briefing on Wednesday, he said he had not read the report, but said “malicious actors” could lose their supply of the meager vaccine.
“If that’s the case, and they did it voluntarily in the face of an orientation that was crystal clear – that’s incredibly offensive,” said Murphy. “If people are scheming like that, it will affect the number of doses they will receive from us in the future.”
The governor and the health commissioner have said in the past that they do not want to see missed doses, noting that there was some confusion at the beginning of the vaccination program about whether members of the hospital’s board, for example, should receive a vaccine with other health care providers.
The report also said that the day before the elderly and people with health problems became eligible for vaccines, the hospital system sent a letter to donors.
“While the deadline for an individual to receive this vaccine can be complicated, the Foundation is here to help you. This does not mean that you will receive the vaccine before the category you fall into, but that we will help you navigate a process that is changing rapidly and can sometimes be complex, ”said the January 13 letter from Hunterdon Healthcare Foundation, the report said. “Who can get the vaccine and when they need to follow the strict guidelines set by the State of New Jersey and the Center for Disease Control.”
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Karin Price Mueller can be contacted at [email protected].