Government at it’s finest.
In Chattanooga, TN health officials turned away hundreds of people who showed up to receive the coronavirus vaccine only to later vaccinate their friends and family.
Health officials in Chattanooga on New Year’s Eve made the vaccine available to those 75 years or older and so many people responded it caused a traffic backup.
The local outlet First On 3, were told by officials they “didn’t want [people] to continue sitting in their cars and not get the vaccine because supply was limited,” in a press release.
“At that point, officials projected there were enough doses for the hundreds of people who were waiting in line inside the park. Those people continued through the park route to the vaccination tent and the last in line left around 4:30 (p.m.).”
However, it appears that these health officials don’t know how to count and had more doses than they thought, so they told people that were helping administer the vaccine to contact their friends and family members and have them come to be vaccinated.
WRCB 3 received information that friends and family were being vaccinated and set up a camera outside the facility. You’ll hear a man boast that all seven people in his vehicle were vaccinated exclaiming, “we got contacts.”
VIDEO: We are choosing to blur the faces of those who spoke to us after receiving a vaccine, but this was one of the exchanges photojournalist @chrisbphotos had outside the Riverpark last night. pic.twitter.com/zI3OE71avT
— Callie Starnes (@calliestarnes) January 1, 2021
“At the end of the day we had more vaccine doses than we had anticipated,” said Hamilton County Health Department Administrator Becky Barnes, in a written statement to Channel 3. “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.”
“Nurses were able to draw 6 and occasionally 7 doses from some vials instead of the projected 5,” explained Barnes in a press release. “This was our first day using the Pfizer vaccine and staff had no history to project the actual doses we would have.”
“However, at day’s end, we realized we still had some vials that had to be used, so staff members contacted people who were known to have requested the vaccine, or who had been unable to be vaccinated at a previously scheduled time. They wanted to make sure that none of it would go to waste,” the statement concluded.
In the meantime, those at risk that wish to receive the vaccine are furious.
“It’s a slap in the face,” said Kelley McCahill, who waited in line for a vaccine and was turned away.
Debbie Baldwin and her husband waited five hours on the highway to get the vaccine for her 94-year-old mother before they were turned away.
“You’re just trying and you had waited that long and we just kept going, you’re going to get it, you’re going to get it, we hated to turn around,” recounted Baldwin.
