Nearly 200 Expiring Vaccine Doses Given To Northwestern Students

EVANSTON, IL — After a local health department provided nearly 200 doses of expiring coronavirus vaccine to Northwestern University Saturday night, school staff set up an early-morning vaccine clinic for students on its Evanston campus.

University officials said they got word around 8:30 p.m. Saturday that the Pfizer doses were due to expire at 7 a.m. the following morning. With less than 12 hours before the doses would go to waste, a group of 13 staff members assembled a midnight vaccination event at Norris University Center.

Ar 9:30 p.m., staff sent out an email to all students living in on-campus residence halls and some student athletes, according to a university spokesperson.

Luke Figora, the university's vice president for operations, was worried that students might not be checking their emails on a Saturday night.

“It was a fantastic team effort to pull this off,” Figora said in a release. “When I got the call about the doses, I was skeptical that we would be able to find providers to administer them at such short notice, and at an inconvenient time for staff who have families.”

The staff volunteers began setting up the clinic before 10 p.m., drew the doses by 11 p.m and started vaccinating students at midnight.

Figora said the event went smoothly, with 197 students and one staff member getting jabbed over the course of less than three hours.

Around 2:30 a.m., there were six people remaining for four doses, the Daily Northwestern reported. The last remaining doses were allocated via a number-guessing tournament, a freshman attendee told the school paper.

A Northwestern spokesperson declined to identify the health department that provided the vaccine, but a spokesperson for the Chicago Department of Public Health confirmed the city's health department had provided the expiring doses.

The Pfizer vaccine must be stored in ultra-cold freezers. Once it is thawed to regular refrigeration temperature, it can be stored for five days in a standard refrigerator, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, indicating the doses used at the Sunday morning Northwestern clinic had been thawed the prior Tuesday.

Statewide, more than 2,600 doses have been wasted as of April 7, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.

Current scene: line to the left checks in with staff, then sit down to fill out, and line up at the right to turn them in and head back to get the shot. Steady stream of people coming up from 1st floor now. pic.twitter.com/VIMU509sPV
— Alex Harrison (@alexhairysun) April 11, 2021

There were no indications that anyone had to be a member of a vaccine priority group to receive one of the expiring vaccine doses at the last-minute event aimed at Northwestern University undergraduates. Figora told reporter Alex Harrison that several of the volunteer staff were trainers on the football team who had been asked to find players to ensure every appointment slot was filled.

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The early-morning clinic Sunday was held just one day before the expansion of vaccine eligibility to everyone aged 16 and older in most of Illinois, as the state advances to Phase 2 of the vaccine rollout. Chicago officials plan to limit eligibility to those in Phase 1c or prior vaccine priority groups until April 19.

Those with underlying health conditions increasing the risk of complications from COVID-19 have been eligible to receive the vaccine outside of Chicago since Feb. 25. Staff at higher education institutions have been eligible in Illinois since March 22.