On New Year's Eve, hundreds of elderly people in Tennessee waited in line for hours to get their coronavirus vaccine. However, they were reportedly turned away due to a shortage of supplies.
Told that there was a shortage in supplies, hundreds of people over the age of 75 were turned away from receiving their coronavirus vaccine. According to NBC affiliate WRCB-TV, health officials instead gave the vaccine to friends and close contacts.
The staff, who work at Tennessee Riverpark vaccination center, reportedly made friends and family aware that there were still vaccines available, even though hundreds waiting in line were just told the opposite.
Hamilton County Health Department took to Twitter with an announcement urging folks to "please leave the line NOW and return at another time."
They continued, "Check back later today. Many more opportunities will open up soon."
When WRCB-TV reporters asked one person how and when he had been able to receive the vaccine, he replied, "We have contacts."
However, Hamilton County Health Department Administrator Becky Barnes told the outlet, "At the end of the day we had more vaccine doses than we had anticipated. Because they had been thawed and prepared they had to be given by the end of the day. Our intent is to never waste any doses and we did not waste any Thursday."
Barnes chalks the situation up to being able to pull more doses out of a single vial of vaccine than originally thought was possible. "Nurses were able to draw 6 and occasionally 7 doses from some vials instead of the projected 5," she said.
"This was our first day using the Pfizer vaccine and staff had no history to project the actual doses we would have," she continued.
While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that the first rollout of vaccine is reserved for frontline workers and those who are 75 years old and older, it is unclear if the "close contacts" who received the vaccine that day met those requirements.
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