NEW ORLEANS — Not everyone who's gotten vaccinated has met the state's criteria.
Sometimes, pharmacies and hospitals have appointments cancel and since the shots expire, some have taken advantage of the no-shows.
Tracy Meyer and Alex Oestreicher are both young, healthy, and not eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine, but both received their first dose of the Moderna vaccine. Both of those doses were about to expire.
"They're like, 'we have extras,'" Meyer said.
"I dropped what I was doing and went right over," Oestreicher said.
Pharmacist Scott Beninato said he'd rather see a shot in someone's arm even if they are not eligible, than in the trash.
"It's rare, but it does happen," Beninato said.
Beninato owns Castellon Pharmacy where 30-to-40 shots of Moderna are administered daily. He said eligible people rarely cancel, but when they do he has to find someone quickly to take the shot.
"Then we start making phone calls," he said.
He said each vial of Moderna contains 10 doses and expires in six hours.
That's why there is an urgency. He tries to find someone eligible first, but if he can't he has a growing wait list of people who are not eligible, but eager.
"We tell them look, this one we got is going to expire at 2 o'clock can you get here before then," Beninato said.
A Facebook group called "NOLA Vaccine Hunters" was specifically created for people looking for leftover doses. It has almost 7,000 members.
The Louisiana Department of Health said it's good practice for pharmacies keep standby lists to make sure doses aren't wasted, but they're aren't set guidelines. Some pharmacies keep lists, others don't.
"Have your name on a list if you can but just keep calling because you might get lucky," Beninato said.
Dr. Jeffrey Elder said LCMC site do not typically keep standby lists for ineligible people since leftover doses are rare.
"We try to get as many people as we can who are eligible and if we have leftover doses we'll give them to whoever, but I wouldn’t tell people to go out there and wait at a place, because there is no guarantee that’s going to happen," Elder said.
Before you hunt down a leftover shot, double check you're eligibility. A BMI of 25 is not as high as you'd think.
The Louisiana Department of Health sent the following statement:
"The Department welcomes the demand in terms of people wanting to get vaccinated. We want everyone to get vaccinated. For now with still limited supply, we need to make sure those with underlying conditions that put them at high risk of severe outcome from COVID are able to get the vaccine. We know many pharmacies and providers keep standby lists which is a good practice. 1,697 doses have been wasted to date."