Christopher Dolan/The Times-Tribune via AP
Vials of the Moderna covid-19 vaccine
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As they refine a complicated distribution strategy, health care workers in Western Pennsylvania have been forced to give covid vaccine doses to people who are not in top priority groups to avoid wasting precious leftover shots.
After long days of vaccinating front-line health care workers, nurses have described calling friends and family members, frantically trying to find someone willing to receive the shot at the last minute.
Public health experts and state officials say such a recourse is not ideal, but it’s the best hospitals can do to contend with one of the Pfizer vaccine’s key requirements: once taken out of cold storage, vaccine vials spoil if not used within six hours. They can’t be refrozen.