PARIS — Laurent Fignon, a geriatric doctor in the south of France, is having to improvise as he gives shots of the COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech to care home residents and health staff because supplies of the right needles and syringes are short.
Getting the full six doses from vials of the Pfizer/BioNTech shot — as allowed this month by the European Union’s health regulator — requires needles that are both thin enough to minimize waste and long enough to deliver the jab, as required, into the recipient’s shoulder muscle.
Fignon’s hospital in the Mediterranean resort of Cannes was sent needles from the French public health authority that were too short, he said,…
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