#Hospital rushes to distribute COVID vaccines after freezer breaks

After a freezer holding precious Moderna COVID-19 vaccines requiring refrigeration broke at a Seattle hospital, medical personnel scrambled to vaccinate as many people as possible at Seattle University and University of Washington clinics.

It turned out to be one of the wildest vaccine rollouts ever as medics rushed to use up the vaccine on people before it expired Thursday night and early Friday morning, the Seattle Times reported.

“I received a call this evening at 9 o’clock and learned a Kaiser freezer went down and could we help vaccinate people before the doses expired at 5:30 in the morning?” Jenny Brackett, an assistant administrator at the University of Washington told the Seattle Times.

Between UW Medical Center’s Northwest and Montlake locations, they had 800 unexpected doses to administer.

Non-profit health system Swedish tweeted late Thursday night that it had 588 Moderna coronavirus vaccine appointments available from 11 p.m. til 2 a.m.

The cause of the freezer malfunction at Kaiser Permanente was not immediately clear.

“It was late, it had monitoring on it — someone saw it and quickly thought to take it to someone who could get it administered,” said Cassie Sauer, president of the Washington State Hospital Association.

Sauer said no dose went unused and 1,600 total doses were administered across locations.