UW Health's standby vaccine list ensures no 'end-of-day waste'

MADISON, Wis. - Officials said 140 COVID-19 vaccine doses were close to expiring at the Wisconsin Center. Staff scrambled to save all but 34. It raises the question: What should happen with the extra COVID-19 vaccine doses at the end of the day?

This is something health care providers, including the Milwaukee Health Department, generally plan for. UW Health uses a standby list of eligible recipients they can call on, while an ethics professor at Marquette University made a good point -- a shot in any arm is better than a shot wasted.

Like any appointment, health care providers have to deal with no-shows and cancellations, even for the COVID-19 vaccine. That's why UW Health planned ahead, compiling a list of pre-screened and eligible recipients to remain on standby.

"We knew that that could happen because somebody doesn't show up, somebody cancels," said Dr. Matt Anderson. "You know, you try to plan the best you can and so, what we really said was we need to have that list of eligible people that we know."

They use geolocation data to see which standby patients are closest to vaccination sites, giving them between 15 and 30 minutes to show up at the end of the day for their shot, and it's worked.

"It's been very effective for us," said Anderson. "We haven't had any end-of-day waste as a result of having that process in place."

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But if that's not an option for any reason, what should happen with those doses?

Marquette University Assistant Professor Conor Kelly said we have to remember the goal in deploying this vaccine.

"The whole point of the vaccines is it's a common-good project," said Kelly. "We're trying to get to place where we can help all of ourselves as a community."

Kelly says he understands there's a priority list, and it should be followed, but if the doses are prepared and thus able to expire, he says vaccinators should be OK with finding any recipient, even if they aren't currently eligible.

"If it's not in an arm, it's not helping any of us," said Kelly. "If it's in an arm, even if it's not the right arm, that's better."

Another solution, Kelly says, is providers asking recipients whether they know someone that wants to get the vaccine -- eligible or not. What complicates that is that state health officials require vaccinators to sign an agreement that says they will provide vaccine only to those that are eligible.