---
title: "Freezer Failure Prompts Madcap Vaccine Giveaway"
description: "After a freezer storing coronavirus vaccines failed late Thursday night, healthcare workers scrambled to give out as many as they could before they expired."
date: "2021-01-29"
modified: "2021-01-29"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/freezer-failure-prompts-madcap-vaccine-giveaway"
categories:
  - "Health & Medicine"
  - "Medical"
  - "Pathogens"
  - "Viruses"
tags:
  - "coronavirus"
  - "covid19"
  - "vaccine"
---

# Freezer Failure Prompts Madcap Vaccine Giveaway

![After a freezer storing coronavirus vaccines failed late Thursday night, healthcare workers scrambled to give out as many as they could before they expired.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/icyvacc.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Hakan Nural via Unsplash / Futurism\</em\>*

After a freezer storing doses of the Moderna vaccine broke down at a Seattle medical center, healthcare workers and volunteers scrambled to dole out as many vaccinations as possible before they went bad.

Experts still haven't determined why the freezer failed, *[The Seattle Times ](<https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/health/late-night-freezer-failure-in-seattle-sends-hundreds-scrambling-to-get-a-fast-expiring-covid-19-vaccine/>)*[reports](<https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/health/late-night-freezer-failure-in-seattle-sends-hundreds-scrambling-to-get-a-fast-expiring-covid-19-vaccine/>). But the end result was a mad dash of people clamoring for a shot, cheering when others were chosen from the crowd, and forming lines around the block in a bid for one of the 800 available doses well into early Friday morning.

"I received a call this evening at 9 o'clock and learned a Kaiser freezer went down and could we help vaccinate people before the doses expired at 5:30 in the morning?" Jenny Bracket, an assistant administrator at UW Medicine, told *The Seattle Times*.

Healthcare workers and volunteers scrambled throughout the night to use up as many vaccines as they possibly could. And while the night's energy better matches a fun gameshow than a mad dash to [administer life-saving vaccines](<https://futurism.com/neoscope/biden-admin-shocked-discover-vaccine-distribution-plan>) during a deadly pandemic, it also underscores [just how fragile](<https://futurism.com/neoscope/vaccine-factory-locked-down-suspicious-package>) the current vaccine supply chain is.

Between requiring special freezers — like the one that broke down in Seattle — and two separate injections to properly inoculate people against COVID-19, the logistics of the vaccine distribution plan have [been a serious challenge](<https://futurism.com/neoscope/biden-coronavirus-vaccine>).

So while the hundreds who were vaccinated last night probably felt like they won the lottery — "Heaven," one exclaimed, according to the *Seattle Times* — the fact that this sudden scramble happened at all illustrates how much we're all depending on a fragile process.

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)