A shot at leftover vaccines

Since the vaccine rollout began, some vaccination sites like pharmacies and certain grocery store chains have scrambled to avoid throwing out vaccines before the doses are set to expire and the shops close.

The experience has had a certain randomness to it, with doses doled out to drugstore customers buying late-night snacks, people who are friends with nurses, and those who loiter at pharmacies around closing time. But now, a New York based start-up known as Dr. B is trying to add some order to the rush for leftover doses.

The free service requires users to enter basic biographical information — such as their date of birth, address, underlying health conditions and the type of work they do — and matches them to nearby providers who have extra doses. The company’s database sorts people by local priority rules — like putting older Americans first — giving providers better odds of administering their leftover shots to those in the greatest need.

If there’s a match, users are notified via text message and have 15 minutes to respond. Then they must be willing to hightail it to the vaccination site.

Despite some grumbling about younger, healthier people snapping up leftover doses, public health experts say the most important thing is that the vaccines don’t go to waste. So far, more than 500,000 people have signed up for Dr. B, and if it scales up the way some hope that it will, it could serve as a model for a better, more equitable way of scheduling vaccinations than simply giving a dose to whoever is closest.
Vaccine rollout

Black and Hispanic communities in the U.S. are confronting vaccine conspiracy theories, rumors and misleading news reports on social media.
The European Union has exported millions doses of vaccines produced in its territory last month, slowing down vaccination efforts and stoking a major political crisis at home.
Kenya and Morocco have approved the Russian Sputnik V vaccine, according to a Russian sovereign wealth fund, Reuters reported.
A British medical journal reported that Covaxin, a vaccine made in India that was rolled out before some questions about it had been fully answered, appeared to be safe to use.
In Spain, some of the country’s largest regions are pressing the central government to speed up vaccinations, in particular by increasing access for older people.

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What else we’re following

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