Hospital Quickly Vaccinates Any and All After Freezer Breaks

A California hospital sprang into action after discovering a freezer had broken and doses of COVID-19 vaccine had begun to thaw.

Hospital staff realized they had to begin using the 839 Moderna doses as quickly as possible because an alarm that was supposed to alert them that the freezer had broken also failed to function, the Los Angeles Times reports.

A pharmacist at Adventist Health Ukiah Valley Medical Center in Mendocino County, Calif., discovered the problem at 11:35 a.m. Monday.

When hospital officials realized they had about two hours before the doses were rendered useless, a plan was immediately enacted to send 200 doses to the county, since the hospital had been storing those doses for the county, then move doses to those on priority lists such as nursing homes and frontline workers.

With 600 doses remaining and an hour left to administer them, the hospital decided it was best to ignore protocol rather than lose the doses. It called out to anyone in the community who could show up and get a shot.

Text messages were sent out to staff.

"We just told them 'Tell everyone you know,'" said Adventist spokeswoman Cici Winiger. "We just wanted to make sure none of this goes to waste."

Within 15 minutes all the doses had been administered.

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