SEATTLE, United States (AP) – Seattle hospitals distributed COVID-19 vaccines to hundreds of people in the middle of the night after a freezer in which they were stored failed.
It is unclear what caused the freezer to fail on Thursday night, but the campuses at UW Medical Center Northwest and Montlake and Swedish Medical Center received more than 1,300 doses that needed to be used before expiring at 5:30 am on Friday , reported The Seattle Times.
News of unexpected doses spread on social media, and a line of hopeful vaccine recipients escaped through the clinic’s door and through a parking lot at UW Medical Center-Northwest. One hundred people lined up at the Swedish Medical Center clinic at the University of Seattle. The hospital tweeted at 11:59 pm that it had 588 doses to distribute and, at 12:30 pm, all service hours had been filled.
At UW Medical Center-Northwest, assistant administrator Jenny Brackett walked through the crowd shouting and asking if anyone was over 65. Many of those who attended were too young and healthy to qualify in Washington’s current priority categories for vaccine distribution. Brackett said the hospital is doing its best to vaccinate eligible people, but the main objective is to put them into combat and avoid waste.
Anyone who received the first injection on Thursday night will also receive the second injection on a two-dose regimen, regardless of age, said Cassie Sauer, president of the Washington State Hospital Association.
A woman pulled out of the crowd at UW Medical Center-Northwest, Tyson Greer, 77, said she woke up at 1 am or 3 am more than a week ago to research the coveted vaccination appointments online. She finally received an injection at 1 am on Friday morning from associate nurse chief Keri Nasenbeny.
Many of the staff working at the vaccination clinic have been working since 7 am on Thursday, Nasenbeny said.
When she received the news about the freezer failure, she called several nurses, who in turn recruited pharmacists and other volunteers. A Seattle firefighter came out of nowhere to help, and a hospital employee’s boyfriend helped manage the line.
Those who received the vaccine were grateful. Sarah Leyden, 57, learned that injections were available from his wife, a hairdresser, who heard from a client who is a nurse.
“I was lucky,” said Leyden.
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