VIANNA DAVILA, THE TEXAS TRIBUNE AND PROPUBLICA

Though he wasn’t slated to get one of the first quarter-million COVID-19 vaccines distributed in Texas, Rio Grande Valley pharmacist Danny Vela figured he’d be earlier in line than most simply because of what he does.Then he got a call Saturday from someone he knows at Doctors Hospital at Renaissance in Edinburg, one of the Texas facilities hardest hit by the virus this year. Vela is not an employee of the hospital, but he was told vaccine doses were available if he wanted one.The reason: The hospital ended up with more vaccines than employees who wanted one, DHR Health’s chief medical officer told the Texas Tribune on Sunday.