BOSTON (CBS) – Nearly 2,000 doses of the Modern COVID-19 vaccine were compromised at the VA Medical Center in Jamaica Plain after a freezer failed.
Earlier this week, a contractor accidentally turned off the freezer while cleaning, after a pipe burst and flooded the room where the vaccines were stored. As a result, 1,900 doses of the vaccine were compromised.
“For the Modern vaccine, it’s 12 hours. Once you are at room temperature for a longer time, you can no longer guarantee that it is effective and therefore cannot give the vaccine, ”said Dr. Paul Biddinger, Medical Director for Emergency Preparedness at Mass General Brigham, to WBZ -TV.
Congressman Stephen Lynch examines the freezer at the VA Medical Center in Jamaica Plain after the compromise of the COVID vaccines (Congressman Stephen F. Lynch’s Image Credit Office)
Kyle Toto, a spokesman for the VA Boston Healthcare System, told WBZ that the vaccines were not discarded.
Toto said the freezer was in a safe place and had an alarm system installed. An investigation is underway to determine why the monitoring and alarm system did not work.
“Replacement doses are in progress and we do not anticipate interrupting our vaccination effort,” said Toto.
Dr. Biddinger said that proper storage is crucial to maintaining the integrity of the vaccine’s key element and its overall success against the virus.
Congressman Lynch and associate chief pharmacist Antoun Houranieh examine vaccine freezers at the VA Medical Center in Jamaica Plain (Office of Congressman Stephen F. Lynch)
“The problem is that the messenger RNA, the mRNA, is very fragile. People kind of made the analogy of an M&M that melts very, very fast. “
Massachusetts deputy Stephen Lynch said the doses were moved to Brockton and West Roxbury while the cleanup operation is still ongoing.
“They fell below the allowed temperature to be stored, so, unfortunately, they were lost,” said Congressman Stephen Lynch. He says he is confident it was accidental, but he called the Inspector General to be sure.
“A 6-inch cooling tube burst and flooded the pharmacy area where vaccines were kept. During the cleaning operation, part of the contractor who was doing the reduction accidentally pulled the freezer out, ”said Lynch.
“They had enough, at least for me,” said veteran Bob Kenney, who still got his shot on Friday. “I hope they can replace him so that no one needs to be without him.”
“We don’t need to make mistakes,” said veteran Paul Hapenny. “There are 1,900 doses that will not fall into people’s arms.”
The freezers on wheels were brought specifically to store COVID vaccines. VA Boston director Dr. Vincent Ng said there was no support for the plug at the time, but has now been reconnected with one. He also said the freezer alarm should have gone off when the temperature dropped, but it did not go off.
“We are investigating the reason for the failure, but what we do know is that we reactivated the alarm,” said Ng. “We tested it several times and it works, so this has been fixed.”