More than 500 doses of coronavirus vaccine were intentionally spoiled by a US pharmacist at a hospital outside Milwaukee, hospital officials announced this week, as local police said they were investigating the incident along with federal authorities.
The episode set off outrage nationally at Aurora Medical Center in Grafton, Wisconsin, as insufficient quantities of shots are rationed for individuals at high risk. No charges were reported immediately, and the pharmacist was not identified by the health-care system, although officials said the person was no longer an employee.
They still did not discuss a potential motive, but with each report from Aurora Health Care, the information became grimmer. The incident, in which 57 vaccine vials were found left outside a refrigerator over the weekend, at first seemed to be an honest mistake. There were hundreds of doses discarded, but others were administered rapidly.
Earlier this week, initiating an internal investigation, hospital officials said they were originally "led to believe" that the incident was triggered by "inadvertent human error." They assumed the vials of the Moderna vaccine were simply left out overnight Friday, and they hurried to administer doses that they believed were still available at the time. They used almost 60 and discarded the remainder, Bahr said.
"we became increasingly suspicious of the behavior of the individual in question."
The worker was suspended and "admitted to intentionally removing the vaccine from refrigeration," on Wednesday, Bahr said. The person, he added, also admitted to removing and returning the vaccine to refrigeration the previous night, Christmas Eve.
The awareness, he said, made it clear that the nearly five dozen individuals who were shot on 26 December did not gain maximum security. He said Aurora Health was working to "figure out a strategy" with Moderna and the FDA to ensure that these individuals are thoroughly inoculated against the virus. He also said they had approached each of those individuals.
Otherwise, Bahr said, there was "no evidence that the vaccinations pose any harm to them other than being less effective or ineffective."
He said that he was not able to make any judgments on motive at the time.
In a state where 3,810 new cases were registered and 42 people died Thursday of Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, according to a state dashboard, the tampering would delay inoculation for hundreds of people, Aurora Health officials said.
"We are more than disappointed that this individual's actions will result in a delay of more than 500 people receiving the vaccine," the health system said in a statement.
Tara Smith, an epidemiologist at Kent State University and a vaccine antipathy expert, said the incident would cause care professionals, including within their own staff, to reassess who has access to the shots.
"Hopefully, this is a one-off, but I'm sure places will now have to think about whether those handling the vaccines are trusted, in addition to making sure supplies are under camera surveillance," she said.
Security in state planning has been paramount, officials say. When Wisconsin began receiving vaccine shipments in December, the eight regional hubs receiving the bulk of the supplies were not reported by the health department.
At a news conference on December 14, Julie Willems Van Dijk, the deputy secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, said, "This is a precious vaccine. We do not want to create any security risks." She said the state had consulted the plans with the Department of Homeland Security.
On Thursday, Andrea Palm, Wisconsin Health Secretary-designate, said her department collaborated with officials from Aurora Health as they "investigated the situation, reviewed their processes, and implemented improvements."
She added in a statement to The Washington Post, "It is disappointing that any Covid-19 vaccine was wasted in Wisconsin,"
The incident in Wisconsin comes as states continue to deal with a bumpy vaccine rollout, which is prioritized in long-term care facilities for health care providers and residents and employees. Distribution has lagged well behind federal estimates so far, as the Trump administration has struggled to meet its pledge by the end of the year to offer shots to 20 million people.
As of Thursday, 12.4 million doses of the vaccine had been distributed throughout the United States, but only 2.8 million of those had been given, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. These estimates lag behind the actual speed of vaccination, which they have promised would accelerate beginning next week, Trump administration officials have stated.
The first two regimens to receive US regulatory approval for emergency use, the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines, are two-shot protocols with intricate logistical specifications. As with the Pfizer product, Moderna's vaccine does not require subarctic temperatures, but it needs to be kept cold. It can be kept for six months at freezer temperatures, the company states and preserved for 30 days in normal refrigerated conditions. However, it can be kept at room temperature for just 12 hours, and once thawed, it can not be refrozen.
Complex storage requirements are one of the reasons why state officials are urging manufacturers to rapidly administer the vaccine once it is obtained. "another step forward in fighting this pandemic."
Aurora Health said it had successfully vaccinated about 17,000 individuals over the previous 12 days in its original statement Monday. Its initial examination, it said, found that after "temporarily being removed to access other items." the 57 vials were actually left out overnight by the employee. Bahr said that before December 24, the particular hospital where the incident occurred received no vaccine.
"We are clearly disappointed and regret this happened."
