Quote:

---

Fortune struck one man in the bakery aisle at the supermarket. Two others were working the night shift at a Subway sandwich shop. Yet another was plucked from a list of 15,000 hopefuls.

With millions of Americans waiting for their chance to get the coronavirus vaccine, a lucky few are getting bumped to the front of the line as clinics scramble to get rid of extra, perishable doses at the end of the day.

It is often a matter of being in the right place at the right time.

Sometimes people who just happen to be near a clinic at closing time are offered leftover shots that would otherwise be thrown away. Sometimes health workers go out looking for recipients. Some places keep waiting lists and draw names at random. Such opportunities may be becoming more prized as shortages around the U.S. lead some places to cancel vaccinations.

David MacMillan was grabbing ingredients for a coconut chickpea dish at a Giant grocery store in Washington when a woman in a lab coat from the in-store pharmacy came up to him and his friend.

"I got two doses of the Moderna vaccine. The pharmacy is closing in 10 minutes. Do you want them?" MacMillan, 31, recalled the woman saying. "I thought, 'Let's go for it.'"

While it may be unsettling to see a 20-something getting a shot while an 90-year-old woman in a nursing home is still waiting, public health experts say getting a dose into someone's arm, anyone's arm, is better than throwing it away.

"As far as I'm concerned, vaccinate anyone but the dog," said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious-disease expert at Vanderbilt University.

Hair colorist Hanna Widger was tipped off by a client about Los Angeles clinics where she might be able to get a leftover dose at the end of the day.

"It almost felt very secretive and undercover," she said. "Almost like this shady drug deal."

---