Harris County hustles to distribute 8,400 COVID-19 vaccines after freezer loses power

[Elderberry]

Houston Chronicle by Zach Despart and St. John Barned-Smith 2/15/2021

Harris County public health officials hustled to distribute thousands of doses of the COVID-19 vaccine after the facility storing them lost power Monday when record-cold temperatures strained the power grid, County Judge Lina Hidalgo said.

Harris County Public Health distributed the doses to Rice University, the county jail and Houston Methodist, Ben Taub and Lyndon B. Johnson hospitals.

The public health department made the decision to offer vaccines to places where there were lots of people already congregated and had the medical staff to distribute the vaccine, Hidalgo said.

The county’s storage facility lost power around 2 a.m. Monday morning and its backup generator failed, forcing the county to improvise a plan to distribute 8,500 doses before they spoiled. All are of the Moderna vaccine, which must be kept between minus 13 and 5 degrees Fahrenheit.

More: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Harris-County-hustles-to-distribute-8-400-15952293.php

[thackney]

In general, electric utilities prioritize medical facilities and the like during emergency times.  But there must be several places with vaccines in storage this event impacted.

[PeteS in CA]

In some states, e.g. NY and CA, the storage facility and distribution points would have done this at the risk of huge fines and other severe consequences, though the scale of it would probably "persuade" the bureaucrats not to do it. FWIW, TX is doing better than the national average for using the doses they've received.

This illustrates why the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are unsuited to Third World countries. This power outage was due to very rare/uncommon weather. In Third World countries power outages are common or daily, where there is power at all.