The person in the article doesn't seem to be in a high risk group. They state they pedaled their bicycle 5 miles to reach the scene. I get that the virus is dangerous for everyone, but I think those of us who are younger and generally more healthy should allow those in high risks groups / high exposure to get the vaccine first, regardless of whatever "leftover doses" exist or not.
Perhaps this person is in a high exposure group due to their job? I'm doubting it but I guess it is possible.
What is the chance of actually having left over doses in a densely populated area? The logistics are pretty simple with great numbers of consumers. It's another mater in a sparsely populated area.
The claim in the article, which is believable, is that many people either don't want to get the vaccine or don't show for some other reason during a single day.
For some unknown additional reason, doses within that day are supposed to be used up. There seems to be an implied expiration for doses, but a single day doesn't make much sense.
The result of both these together is that they are supposedly letting people not scheduled to get the vaccine get it on some days. The article calls them "walk-ins".
Apparently word of this has been spreading slowly, and in this case went viral and a ton of people showed up to attempt to get some small number of "leftover doses".
It seems like chaos to me and a failing of sensible procedure. I am not though a doctor or involved in the distribution process so what do I know. Perhaps there is good reason this happens.
For the Pfizer vaccine, once a vial is mixed with the diluent, there is a 6 hour window to use the 6 doses in it. Shouldn't be creating a huge amount of waste because of that, but it isn't unreasonable to expect that more than 1 vial would be prepared at a given time.
Surely it’s better to give doses to low risk groups than to throw them away. The main hurdles with vaccine rollouts seem to be logistics problem rather than scarcity of the vaccine itself
Perhaps this person is in a high exposure group due to their job? I'm doubting it but I guess it is possible.