I read an interesting article recently in the NYT about a new app to connect people who are looking to be vaccinated, and who can respond quickly to a local provider/pharmacy who has extra doses that must be used or discarded.
The app is called Dr. B and here is a link to its website:
hidrb.com
From the Dr B website:
The standby list for leftover COVID vaccines
Leftovers happen. People miss their appointments. Vials come with extra doses. Any thawed vials must be used within 6 hours, or they get thrown out.
Looking to get vaccinated but can’t get an appointment? Join the standby list to get connected with local providers with extra doses.
The New York Times gave Dr B some good publicity in their article:
www.nytimes.com/…
In the hustle to score an elusive vaccine appointment, the leftover dose has become the stuff of pandemic lore.
Extra shots — which must be used within hours once taken out of cold storage — have been doled out to drugstore customers buying midnight snacks, people who are friends with nurses and those who show up at closing time at certain grocery stores and pharmacies. At some larger vaccination sites, the race to use every dose sets off a flurry of end-of-the-day phone calls.
Dr B seems to be trying to do the matchmaking in a thoughtful manner, keeping public health policy in the forefront, as time allows.
From USA Today:
www.usatoday.com/...
While other tools crowdsource information to help people find open vaccine appointments, Dr. B only aims to connect people with doses that would expire.
Users sign up with Dr. B by giving the same information they would give to their local health department, Massoumi said. People are prioritized into groups based on how their local health departments determine eligibility. Within those groups, people are prioritized by the order in which they signed up for Dr. B.
I am very fortunate to be fully vaccinated, with two shots of the Pfizer vaccine, but I have sent the link to the Dr B website to all my family and friends who have not yet been vaccinated.