Since the launch of the Prullenbakvaccin.nl, a website that alerts people to leftover vaccines in their area, vaccine hopefuls can be found queueing outside many GPs. This is the case today in Gouda where about one hundred people are queueing outside of the Ruting Ybema practice in the hopes of receiving a coronavirus vaccine.
Dutchies seem keen to get the vaccine, some driving over an hour to get to a practice with leftover doses. EditieNL spoke to two willing guineapigs who travelled to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine. “I think we will get a second injection in about ten weeks. That can be done by this doctor, but also elsewhere. We are both from Delft, so we will probably go there.”
Huisarts Fluwelensingel #Gouda staat op blauw via https://t.co/A49zzwNGni met een enorme rij tot gevolg…. pic.twitter.com/N4rm5r6A1T
— Johan Weeber (@JohanWeeber) May 13, 2021
More demand than vaccines
The website Prullenbakvaccin.nl launched earlier this week. It was set up by Dutch doctors who were frustrated at having to throw away coronavirus vaccines due to a lack of appointment take up.
Since the site launched, it has received over a million hits per day. At peak times it receives 70,000 hits per hour, reports RTL Nieuws. According to the co-founder of the website, GP Marco Blanke, the queues at Gouda are a positive sign. “It illustrates how many people want a vaccine,” he adds. “The tricky thing is that there is more demand than residual vaccines.”
At the beginning of the week, the site listed all of the practices with excess vaccines, but Blanke said that Prullenbakvaccin.nl had to remove some of this data due to the high demand. However, he has said he is not worried by the huge uptake from the website. “The more practices are added, the more vaccines are available and the wider the spread.”
What do you think about queueing for leftover vaccines? Do you think this is a good way to tackle wastage? Let us know in the comments!
Feature Image: freestock/Pexels