How do you get a leftover COVID-19 vaccine? This Fresno woman shares how she did it

A year after the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the world, I was driving by a pharmacy with a friend when I thought, “I wonder if they have any leftover vaccines?”

I had been hearing about lucky Americans all over the country being approached in pharmacies at closing time, asked by employees if they’d like to receive a vaccine that was left over from missed appointments for the day.

Even locally, I’d heard that friends of friends had received their first doses in a similar way — walking into pharmacies and asking outright if there were any missed appointments. Community members on the Nextdoor app had been posting about which pharmacies had which vaccines, and which were most likely to have extras at the end of the day. I had even joined an online wait list called Dr. B, where over a million people have signed onto a standby list for extra vaccines. If vaccines in my area were potentially going to waste after people weren’t arriving for their appointments, then of course I wanted a chance at getting one before that happened.

On March 13, my friend and I finally decided to give it a try. We pulled into a parking lot and timidly began calling north Fresno pharmacies, starting with leads I had found on Nextdoor.

Early in our endeavor, one pharmacy employee at a Clovis CVS kindly told us that while their pharmacy did not yet carry the vaccine, what we were doing was a good thing and that we should keep trying.

My friend started keeping track of the information we gathered: name of the pharmacy, phone number, location and response. Many pharmacies told us they had no extras, some encouraged us to call back later in the day — when appointments were officially over — to check again. One even offered to put us on a wait list for extra vaccines from when their next shipment arrived. After an hour of placing calls, I had all but memorized the phone menus for different pharmacies, knowing which shortcut to press to immediately speak to an employee.

One of the pharmacies that instructed us to call back later was coincidentally the one we had been parked in front of for the past hour. Discouraged after around 13 unsuccessful phone calls, we waited until five minutes after the time they told us to call them back, and again asked them if they had any extra vaccines for the day. For the first time, we didn’t get an immediate “no.”

Instead, the employee asked: “How many do you need?”

I quickly told them we needed two vaccines and that we were waiting just outside, ready to come in right then if need be. They verified our ages and told us we could come in immediately to start the paperwork.

We filled out the paperwork and nervously waited for around an hour to be called back to receive the shot. I counted at least three others who were also there to receive the day’s leftover doses.

Finally, a physician called us back, took our temperature, and gave us the first dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine — just under two hours after we started placing calls.

After receiving the vaccine, I was overwhelmed with a feeling of immense relief that I was one step closer to protecting myself, my loved ones and my community against COVID-19. There’s still a way to go while we continue to social distance, wear masks and get people vaccinated, but it was amazing to experience firsthand how plenty of pharmacies in Fresno and Clovis are committed to making sure these coveted vaccines are not going to waste.

This story was originally published March 19, 2021 at 11:14 AM.