Hoping to get students back into classrooms, a medical center in rural Georgia decided to administered COVID vaccines to teachers, bus drivers, and cafeteria workers.
The initiative ended up costing the clinic a 6-month supply of the coronavirus vaccine, according to The Washington Post.
On Thursday, the Medical Center of Elberton announced that the Georgia Department of Public Health would be suspending all shipments of the vaccine to the facility for violating policies by vaccinating people who were not eligible, the state agency told WYFF.
Currently, the vaccine is only available in Georgia to healthcare workers, staff and residents at long-term care facilities, residents older than 65, and law enforcement.
“I’m pretty pissed about it because we are a tightknit community,” Brooke McDowell, an administrator at the medical center, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Our community is relying on us to vaccinate them, and our state has decided, during a pandemic, to suspend our privileges.”
Georgia officials first learned of the medical center's decision to vaccinate teachers on Tuesday, prompting an investigation. Authorities then suspended vaccines to the center until July 27.
“I think it’s ridiculous,” David Bennett, a high school drama teacher, told WSB-TV. “I believe in giving us the protection we need to do the jobs that we have to do each and every day.”
According to the Washington Post's coronavirus tracker, there have been 890,000 coronavirus cases in Georgia, and more than 13,800 deaths.
Earlier this week, Georgia Republican Governor Brian Kemp stood his ground after a dozen superintendents of Atlanta-area school districts signed a letter asking to allow for teachers and education staff to get the vaccine.
The governor said the state has not received enough doses to include them yet, reported The Washington Post.
LISTEN NOW on the RADIO.COM App
Follow RADIO.COM
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
