A hospital in rural western New Jersey used some of its COVID-19 vaccine allocation for hospital executives, spouses and other family members, donors and trustees when government protocols prioritized health workers and long-term care facility residents, a state radio station network reported citing state records.
The Hunterdon Medical Center in Flemington gave inoculations to two longtime donors and at least seven spouses and two adult children of medical directors, administrators or executives. NJ101.5, the commonly known name of 12 Townsquare New Jersey News Network stations anchored by the flagship WKXW station in Trenton, said the list of vaccinations from the state registry was obtained from an unidentified source.
At least one person was 22 years old, the relative of a hospital medical director, who received their vaccination on Jan. 3, the same day as a 51-year-old financial adviser, four days before the state began appointments for eligible emergency first responders.
The hospital told the network that the doses to people in the non-prioritized groups only were distributed if the vaccine available was likely to go to waste. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines both are required to be kept frozen and cannot be refrozen after thawed, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
''Only if doses were likely to go to waste were vaccines administered to individuals who did not have an appointment," hospital spokesman Jason VanDiver said in a written response to the network. ''Again, only if eligible recipients who were healthcare personnel could not be recruited and excess doses were expected to go to waste, were others sought to receive the vaccine.
''These recipients, as instructed by the New Jersey Department of Health included family members of staff who were working at the clinic, recently retired Hunterdon Healthcare employees, volunteers, and other non-clinical staff associated with the organization.''
Reports of ''vaccine tourism'' — traveling to distant locales to obtain an inoculation — and reports of bribes of $10,000 or more have been reported in several states.
"We believed, and still believe, that it was better to vaccinate someone available to us than to allow any vaccine to go to waste,'' VanDiver said. ''In no case did we prioritize a donor, board member, or executive over an eligible clinician, senior, or at-risk individual who was available to receive a vaccination.''