D.C. residents offered nearly expired doses of vaccine at grocery stores

'Obviously the pharmacist is the hero here.'

Jan 7, 2021

Several D.C. residents received nearly expired doses of the COVID vaccine at a local supermarket.

The vaccines were quickly administered to shoppers at Giant Food when a pharmacist realized the doses were about to expire, PEOPLE reports.

“She turned to us and was like, ‘Hey, I’ve got two doses of the vaccine and I’m going to have to throw them away if I don’t give them to somebody. We close in 10 minutes. Do you want the Moderna vaccine?” law student David MacMillan, who got his first dose of the Moderna vaccine, told NBC Washington. He is scheduled to get his second dose at the end of the month.

“Obviously the pharmacist is the hero here. She only had a short period of time and she wanted to make sure that as many people got vaccinated as possible. So props to her, absolutely,” MacMillan told the outlet.

A local Safeway also served up COVID vaccinations after a pharmacist informed shoppers that the drug would soon expire and had to be administered by closing.

The federal government has partnered with thousands of pharmacies in retail and grocery stores across the country to bring free COVID-19 vaccines to Americans. Participating retailers include Walmart, Publix and Kroger, which has over 2000 pharmacies in 35 states.

“Kroger Health is also engaged in vaccination efforts for prioritized populations in several other geographies,” the company said in a statement.

An earlier report on theGRIO noted that scientists at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research determined the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines will work against several mutations of the coronavirus.

The first vaccine to be distributed was the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. theGrio reported that Sandra Lindsay, a Black critical care nurse in Queens, was among the first to receive Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine after volunteering to take the shot. She received a second dose on Monday (Jan. 4).

“I feel good,” Lindsay said. “I don’t feel any way different before I got it. I hope the vaccine is available to everyone as it was for me.”

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