OVIEDO, Fla. — As vaccine eligibility continues to expand many more Floridians are getting their shots, but sometimes demand does not outpace supply. Younger people are now receiving doses because of unused vaccine that would go to waste otherwise.​

What You Need To Know

On any given day at the Oviedo vaccination site, vaccine hunters's odds are not in their favor. It’s literally a 1 in about 1,000 shot to get vaccinated at the end of the day, but hunters are on the prowl looking everywhere for a chance at a vaccine.

Igancio Garcia, 36, has been hunting for an available coronavirus vaccine dose since January. 

“As soon as they said there is a vaccine available, I was already looking," Garcia explained. "I check to see what are the rules, what are the timelines?”

In the last few weeks, he has been shopping around.

“If I am at Publix, I am going to slow crawl past the pharmacy area to see if I get lucky there,” Garcia said.

According to Seminole County emergency manager Alan Harris, they follow all the guidelines set by the governor, but also make sure no dose is wasted at the end of the day if a new vialg happened to be opened.

“An 80-year-old is a priority member, they are going to get it first," Harris explained. "But if there is no one else, the 23-year-old is going to get it. We would much rather save their life than throw it in the garbage, it doesn’t make any sense.”

Garcia says he has even tried getting alerts by signing up on websites that will send him a text alert of any opportunities.

“You put in some information and they send you a text that you confirm," Garcia said. "Then they say once we find an opening, we text you, you respond yes, you can take it, then it will be yours.”

Openings can happen if those who are eligible now make multiple appointments or fail to cancel an appointment once vaccinated.

“People make reservations here or they got on a waste list or other type of list," Harris said.  "If that appointment comes up before the one here, they take that appointment and don’t cancel it here, so we are sitting on cancellations each day.”

So far the hunt for Garcia has been slow. “At this point I am waiting to see if there is an opportunity.”

But signing up for waste lists is a shot worth taking.

How to Get on a Waste List

Depending on which vaccine a site is using, a vial could have either 5 or 10 doses in it. So there is no clear indicator at the end of the day how many doses could be left. 

Several pharmacies across Central Florida do have waste lists, but the best thing to do is call each individual pharmacy near you to ask if they in fact have a waste list, and if you can be added to their waste list, otherwise you could also try at the end of the day at a vaccination site. There is no guarantee you will receive a vaccine, however.