Hospital Defends Itself After Disney Employee Brags Relative Let Her Skip The Line For Vaccination

Redlands Community Hospital in Redlands, California, issued a statement defending handing out leftover Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines to non-front line healthcare workers after a woman who reportedly works for Disney posted to Facebook that she received a vaccine through a relative who works at the hospital.

The statement, according to the Orange County Register, said the hospital obeyed guidelines from the California Department of Public Health by administering the vaccine to physicians, healthcare workers, and support staff. Once all medical staff had been vaccinated, leftover doses were given to non-front line healthcare workers before the vaccines expired.

“After physicians and staff who expressed interest in the vaccine were administered, there were several doses left. Because the reconstituted Pfizer vaccine must be used within hours or be disposed of, several doses were administered to non-front line workers so that valuable vaccine would not be thrown away,” the statement read. (RELATED: CDC Says More Than A Million Americans Have Been Vaccinated For COVID-19)

The 33-year old Disney employee from Riverside who published the now-deleted Facebook post included a photo of her vaccination card from Redlands Community Hospital, the Orange County Register reported. When a Facebook friend asked her how she received the vaccine, she said she got it through her husband’s aunt, who is a “big deal” at the hospital.

“When I woke up this morning, I didn’t think I would be getting the COVID-19 vaccine today. But here we are. I’m so very happy,” her post reportedly read. “Science is basically my religion, so this was a big deal for me.”

The name of the woman who made the Facebook post is being withheld from the Southern California News group, according to the Orange County Register.