Bayside Vaccination Site May Have Over Diluted Doses: Report

BAYSIDE, QUEENS — 16,000 Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine doses could have been over diluted and administered to people at the Korean Community Services’ (KCS) vaccination site in Bayside, according to a report by CBS New York.

Andrew Palazzo, a former lead vaccinator at the KCS site, told CBS that Centers Urgent Care CEO Scott Orlanski — whose Middle Village-based healthcare company runs several NYC vaccination sites including the location in Bayside — instructed him to over dilute Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine doses in order to obtain at least seven doses per vial.

According to the FDA guidelines for administering the Prizer vaccine, 1.8 mL of diluent should be used with each dose, resulting in five to six doses of vaccine per vial.

Palazzo, who worked at the KCS site from the end of March until May, at which point he was fired, said that he “was instructed to have everybody do the over diluting” — adding between 1.9 mL and 2.0 mL of diluent per dose.

Palazzo has since filed a lawsuit against Centers Urgent Care, demanding money from lost wages and that the KCS site be shut down, reported CBS on Monday.

“I assumed he was the higher medical authority,” Palazzo told CBS of Orlanski, who he said instructed him to over dilute the doses. “I thought it was OK,” he added.

Text messages sent between vaccinators, and testimony from a current vaccinator corroborate Palazzo’s claims that management was pressuring vaccinators at the site to over dilute.

“They heavily pressured the vaccinators to get seven doses,” said one current vaccinator, who asked CBS to remain anonymous out of fear of retaliation.

According to that employee, a group went to management and threatened to quit if they had to continue over diluting, at which point management “agreed that they weren’t going to be doing this going forward. They said there had been a miscommunication,” the employee told CBS.

Dr. Josef Schenker, medical director and owner of Centers Urgent Care, denies any claims of over diluting.

“We never advised anybody to over dilute anything,” he told CBS, adding that nobody was instructed to draw up more than 1.8 mL of diluent at any time.

“If you’re very careful and you’re very precise with your measurements, you can get a seventh dose,” he said — a claim that the FDA indicated in December is “possible.”

CBS asked Dr. Purvi Parikh, an immunologist and a researcher on the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials, about what happens to the Pfizer vaccine efficacy when it is over diluted.

“If a vaccine is over diluted, it can lose it’s efficacy and it’s potency,” Dr. Parikh said, pointing out that she doesn’t know what exactly the difference in efficacy is between a vaccine that has 1.9 mL of diluent versus 1.8 mL “because it hasn’t been studied.”

But she added: ‘From a medical standpoint, likely in that small amount it won’t make a huge difference.”

According to CBS, the New York City Health Department said senior city staff visited the KCS vaccination site unannounced and said that after checking the vaccine, observing operations, and interviewing staff, that no major issues were identified as of now.