TN Health Workers Accused of Turning Away Elderly Vaccine Recipient Hopefuls to Give Doses to Friend

[babylonsister]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/tennessee-health-workers-accused-of-turning-away-elderly-vaccine-recipient-hopefuls-to-give-doses-to-friends?ref=home

Tennessee Health Workers Accused of Turning Away Elderly Vaccine Recipient Hopefuls to Give Doses to Friends
Friends and Family Plan
Adam Rawnsley
Published Jan. 01, 2021 7:20PM ET

People over 75 lined up for hours in Tennessee to get a chance at a COVID-19 vaccine only to find out that staff distributing the inoculations gave away doses to friends and family after telling hundreds who’d waited for hours that no more shots were available. Reporters from WRCB-TV learned that staff at the Tennessee Riverpark vaccination center had phoned relatives and friends and told them vaccines were still available after the facility had turned away potential patients. Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger said the incident was the result of a “miscalculation,” in which officials discovered they had more doses available only after turning patients away and sought to make use of them quickly before the vaccine thawed and spoiled.

[58Sunliner]

1. Should be criminal.

[Hortensis]

2. The explanation might be true, inexcusable administrative error

leading to unacceptable solution to avoid wasting the vaccine.

Negligence or actively defrauding the community, they're blasted and investigation and correction follows.

[TNNurse]

3. I know two Chattanooga residents in their 80s

who live at home and want to be more active after the pandemic.... who were told they were out of vaccines when they finally got to the front of the line.

[Hugin]

4. It's mighty nice of those 'family and friends' to volunteer to be COVID front line...

workers.

Hand them a mop for the duration.

Seriously, this is a serious crime along the lines of negligent manslaughter and should be treated as such. If there are no penalties this behavior will continue and get worse.

[DBoon]

16. a mop?

a shovel to dig graves would be more fitting

[Hugin]

17. There are plenty of at risk jobs they could be doing.

I don't want them near any actual patients or unvaccinated people, though.

Only the low or unskilled jobs.

[kcr]

5. If they had time to call friends and family

They had time to call back people who needed the vaccine. The media need to stop even giving that bullshit excuse any airtime/print.

[niyad]

6. Miscalculation my ass.

[NCjack]

8. They got caught -- that was their "miscalculation".

The names of those who "miscalculated" must be published, so members of the community should learn about them. If it was an accident, then those miscalculators are incompetent and should be assigned future work according to their abilities. If it was not an accident, they should be removed.

[niyad]

10. Exactly!

[Renew Deal]

11. Drama

[SheltieLover]

14. Absolutely!

Hopefully, there will be stiff consequences!

[whathehell]

7. They do need to be fired -- at least.

Lovely folks -- Renews my faith in human kind.

[Ferrets are Cool]

9. Unfortunately, we all knew this was going to happen

It was inevitable.

[whathehell]

13. I wouldn't necessarily agree..

I'd concede the strong possibility, but I don't think it was "inevitable"..I guess I don't believe most people are THAT shitty.

[Mariana]

20. Most people aren't that shitty.

The ones who are that shitty make the headlines when they get caught. It only takes a few.

[whathehell]

23. Correct, that's why

I didn't think it was 'inevitable'..

[James48]

12. There will be many more stories like this.

It’s human nature.

[William Seger]

19. And stories even worse -- like doing it, not even for friends and family, but for money

Money draws maggots like putrefying flesh.

[keithbvadu2]

15. "We have got contacts,"

“We have got contacts,” exclaimed one driver when asked how he was able to get a vaccine. The driver told Channel 3 all seven people in the vehicle received a vaccination. It’s not clear if those individuals met the CDC or the Health Department's criteria to receive this round of available vaccines.

https://imgur.com/gallery/4x14cSn

[keithbvadu2]

18. Safe?

[dalton99a]

22. "Should I give this vaccine to my family first, or to some random 85-year-old?"

I suspect this practice is not uncommon

[whathehell]

24. The answer to that is "It's not my decision to make"

since I don't own the vaccine -- It's why we have these things called "rules" and "laws".