If you’re waiting impatiently for your turn to get a vaccine, you probably already know all the tricks to snag an appointment. (If not, we have a guide here.) But there’s another avenue you may be able to pursue: the standby list. Sometimes clinics will have extra doses available at the end of the day, and if you’re in the right place at the right time, you might be able to snag one.
Each clinic handles this situation differently, and different state laws may apply, so there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. But we can offer a few tips, including signing up for Dr. B, a service that says it will text you if extra doses suddenly become available in your area.
Why are extra doses sometimes available?
All three vaccines are shipped in multi-dose vials, five or six doses per vial. Once a vial is opened, its contents must be used within six hours.
The vaccines also have limits on the amount of time they can spend at a given temperature: for example, the Moderna vaccine can spend 30 days in a refrigerator, but you can’t refreeze it to buy more time. In addition, vaccine vials also have an expiration date.
Vaccine clinics try to plan their appointments to match up with available doses, but sometimes they have to open a vial at the end of the day. Or, in rare cases, a freezer might fail and the staff may have to administer a large number of doses in a short time, like what happened in Seattle with a freezer containing 1,600 Moderna doses.
Who qualifies to get one of the extra doses?
This depends on state priority groups, and state and local regulations. Extra doses are usually given to people who are already high up on the priority lists, but in some cases they can be administered to anyone.
How do I sign up?
There’s no organized national or state registry (that I could find) that serves as a standby list. Clinics often keep their own lists of people to call when extra doses are available, including people who were signed up for a vaccine but had to miss their appointment, and clinic staff or hospital patients who fall into priority groups.
Health startup Dr. B aims to match people who want vaccines with clinics that have extras, although The New York Times reports that they are only working with two clinics so far. The company aims to connect people with extra doses nationwide, and says 200 clinics have applied to partner with them. They seem to be working within each state’s existing priority groups, so this won’t let you jump the line if you aren’t yet eligible to be vaccinated.
To sign up, you have to give personal information to the for-profit company, which The New York Times says has not yet described its business model. While many people will no doubt sign up for a shot at increasing their chances of getting a vaccine sooner, you can also just sit tight and sign up for an appointment as soon as you are eligible.