Every vaccination site has a different ‘leftover dose’ policy. Here’s what we know
“leftover doses” really exist?
On Saturday in Florida City, some people got the vaccine even though they didn’t meet the governor’s vaccine criteria. That changed the next day.
So, should you hang around a site, maybe at the end of the day, with the hope of getting a leftover shot? You’ll need to be lucky.
Pharmacies, state and federal officials say extra doses are rare. And when a site has leftover vaccine supply at the end of the day, the policy is to get shots in the arms of people who meet Florida’s eligibility criteria.
Still, you might also be in the right place at the right time if a vaccination site has extras and you happen to fit the bill.
Here are some more things to know about extra doses:
WHAT IS THE EXTRA-DOSES POLICY AT FEDERAL SITES LIKE MDC NORTH?
Marty Bahamonde, a spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said it’s rare for there to be any unused doses at the end of the day, and if there is, it’s usually one or two.
He said there are usually five doses available per vaccine vial, and once a vial is opened, the doses must be administered within six hours. Unlike other vaccination sites, federal locations do not require appointments.
To avoid leftover doses, he said the staff at FEMADo run sites at Miami Dade College North, Florida City and Sweetwater are instructed to open vials depending on how many eligible people are in line. If at day’s end, doses are still available with no one eligible in line, Bahamonde said workers are told to check the list of people who pre-registered for a vaccine and contact them.
That includes people who registered through myvaccine.fl.gov or people who pre-registered at the site previously because they met the criteria but were turned away because doses ran out.
Bahamonde said the staff is also instructed to contact hospitals or law enforcement offices in the area to see if any employees are eligible and want the vaccine.
WHAT’S THE POLICY AT PHARMACIES IN SOUTH FLORIDA?
Pharmacies including CVS Health and Walmart say end-of-the day leftovers are rare because appointments are scheduled based on supply. But missed appointments happen. And that means extra doses for others.
If there are unused doses at the end of the day, here’s what happens:
CVS Health, which owns Navarro Discount Pharmacy, CVS y mas and traditional CVS stores says pharmacists are instructed to contact eligible patients. Every pharmacy maintains a profile for each patient. It includes information pharmacists could use to determine if the patient matches Florida’s vaccine criteria. The other alternative is for pharmacists to offer doses to employees who qualify for the vaccine.
Walmart, which also owns Sam’s Club, says it will offer unused doses “to individuals, including our associates, who fall within that priority to administer the remaining doses.” The big box retailer did not indicate how it notifies shoppers that vaccines are available.
Publix has an “end of doses at night” procedure. The process allows for any leftover doses at the end of the day to be given to eligible associates to make sure the vaccines don’t go to waste. The Lakelandbased company did not say whether it has a procedure for customers.
Southeastern Grocers, parent company of Winn-Dixie and Fresco y Más, did not immediately respond to how the company handles extra vaccine doses.
WHAT’S THE POLICY AT COUNTY-RUN AND STATE-RUN VACCINE SITES?
Miami-Dade County,
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which runs the Tropical Park and Zoo Miami
sites, told NBC6 it follows a discard policy that prioritizes healthcare workers on the site and those 65 or older, and eventually allows leftover doses to go to anyone at a site, regardless of their age.
Some of the state-run vaccination sites in South Florida include Hard
Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Marlins Park in Miami, Snyder Park in Fort Lauderdale and Tree Tops Park in Davie. The Florida Division of Emergency Management, which is tasked with the state’s vaccine distribution, did not immediately disclose the extra-dose policy at these sites.
Jury selection got underway Monday in MiamiDade’s first felony trial in the COVID-19 era, but not without a twist: The Public Defender’s Office asked to ban the “unnecessary use of masks” in the courtroom.
Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Miguel de la O denied the motion without argument on Monday morning.
The request was nonetheless a surprising one given that court officials had worked for months with lawyers, including the Public Defender’s Office, and medical experts to arrange guidelines to ensure a safe trial at the Richard E. Gerstein Justice Building in Miami.
In the motion filed Sunday, defense attorneys said masks would prohibit the defendant’s constitutional right to confront a witness and be able to judge the
person’s demeanor on the stand.
“This is more than just the right to have the witness physically present. It literally means the right to meet the witness face to face,” Assistant Public Defender John L. Sullivan III wrote in a motion.
The motion also said that jurors shouldn’t wear masks. “The ability to judge the demeanor of jurors is an essential part of jury selection,” Sullivan wrote.
The request cited recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings
blocking pandemic restrictions on religious gatherings. The motion did not address whether lawyers or other court personnel should be prohibited from wearing facial coverings.
The use of masks is now widely accepted as crucial in stopping the spread of the highly contagious virus, despite political outcry from opponents of restrictions. Texas and Mississippi ended mask mandates last week, and several other states are preparing to do so, despite warnings from
public-health experts.
The request to ban masks was filed in the case of Florida v. Odell Wadley, who is accused of an armed robbery in Florida City in May 2019. He faces up to life in prison if convicted.
Miami-Dade’s first civil and misdemeanor criminal trials began last week, without any hitches — and with everyone wearings masks.
Monday’s jury questioning, and the entire trial, is being live-streamed on the 11th Judicial Circuit’s YouTube
page.
“You are literally going to make history, whether you’re picked or not,”
Judge de la O told jurors to start Monday morning’s proceedings, which were being held in the large jury pool room on the seventh floor.
The judge denied the mask motion during a break in another courtroom, a proceeding that was not live-streamed, a courts spokeswoman confirmed. In the afternoon, during the live feed, the judge recapped that the state had objected to the motion and that he had denied the request with no arguments.
Wadley’s trial is the first felony case to go to trial since March 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic forced the shutdown of public spaces across the country. For the past year in South Florida, most state criminal hearings have been conducted via Zoom, to avoid people gathering — and possible infecting each other — at the county’s cramped courthouse.
At the Gerstein building, officials plan to hold no more than three trials at any given time, and only a smaller pool of about 35 jurors is convened in person after a virtual preselection process. All other hearings are still being held via Zoom.
On Monday morning, everyone in the jury pool room was wearing masks, and jurors were spaced out for safety. Once a jury is selected in the Wadley case, the trial itself will begin Tuesday in courtroom 4-1, the building’s most spacious one.
Unlike before, jurors won’t have to deliberate a verdict in the cramped jury rooms. Instead, they will be allowed the entire courtroom to deliberate, with lawyers and court personnel moving to an adjacent courtroom or other offices to wait or engage in other litigation.
To improve the air quality, machines known as air-scrubbers will also run during breaks and overnight.