MADISON, Wis. – Alex Lasry, a 33-year-old Milwaukee Bucks executive and son of a billionaire, received the coronavirus vaccine this week at a senior living center in Milwaukee, despite not being part of a group currently eligible for the shots in Wisconsin.
“This week I was vaccinated!” Lasry tweeted on Friday after the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel first reported it. “My wife got a call from her uncle that works in a facility that had extra doses that were going to go to waste if not used right away. With Lauren early in her pregnancy, we wanted to ensure our home, and entire community is safe for everyone.”
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Lasry, a New York City native, is considering running for the U.S. Senate in Wisconsin in 2022. He was also host committee chair for the 2020 Democratic National Convention, which was awarded to Milwaukee but moved online due to the pandemic.
Lasry, the son of Bucks co-owner and hedge fund manager Marc Lasry, tweeted that his vaccination was “pure happenstance, but I’m incredibly thankful.” Alex Lasry told the newspaper his wife’s uncle who called about the vaccine is rabbi at Ovation Chai Point Senior Living.
“It’s safe, healthy and how we’re all going to finally get out of this pandemic,” he tweeted. “As the rollout continues, if available, please don’t let any vaccines go to waste! Get vaccinated!”
Gov. Tony Evers said during a Friday update on Wisconsin's vaccination efforts that state health officials are encouraging providers to use all the vaccine they have.
“They should just get it in somebody’s arm,” Evers said.
As for Lasry, Evers said he’s not sure what happened. Evers, who is 69, said he is waiting for his doctor to contact him about setting up an appointment for his first shot, because they became available to everyone over age 65 in Wisconsin starting Monday.
He said he is waiting for his doctor to contact him about setting up an appointment for his first shot.
Lasry said he didn’t receive special treatment because of his position with the Bucks, his political aspirations or his father’s wealth.
“That has nothing to do with anything,” Lasry told the newspaper. “Honestly, if I wasn’t married to Lauren, I don’t know that I would have gotten a call or known about it.”
Evers said he would rather see providers administer vaccine outside the priority phases than let it go to waste, saying the number of doses administered outside the protocols is going to be a tiny percentage of all inoculations.
State Department of Health Services Deputy Secretary Julie Willems Van Dijk said sometimes providers can get more doses out of individual vials than planned and no one wants to waste any vaccine. Many providers keep waiting lists of people they can call quickly if doses end up exceeding appointments, she said.
“We don’t want a dose wasted,” she said. “We need all these doses in arms. That’s how this can happen, even with excellent planning.”
All vaccine providers have signed an agreement to provide doses according to the state’s priority phases, Van Dijk said. If providers perpetually violate the guidelines, state officials will talk with them and could decide to stop sending those providers any doses, she said.
“We’ve talked to a number of places and have seen changes in behavior on that,” she said. ”(But) there is no way we can police every single vaccine that is put in an arm at the end of the day.”
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This story was first published on January 29, 2021. It was updated on February 17, 2021 to correct an erroneous description of Lasry as a hedge fund manager. Lasry’s father, Marc, managers a hedge fund.