The group should receive the Modern vaccine.
More than three dozen people mistakenly received treatment with the Regeneron monoclonal antibody instead of the Modern vaccine, the West Virginia National Guard announced on Thursday
Forty-two people received the antibody product, intramuscularly, at a vaccination clinic hosted by the Boone County Health Department staff. The treatment, which received emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration in November, is usually administered by intravenous infusion.
“It was determined that this was an isolated incident,” Julie Miller, administrator of the Boone County Health Department, told ABC News.
Specialist doctors at the Joint Interagency Task Force do not believe that there is any risk of harm to these 42 individuals, and all individuals who have received the monoclonal antibody have been contacted or are in the process of contacting, according to the West Virginia National Guard.
Regeneron is a cocktail of drugs consisting of antibodies developed to fight COVID-19. The drug was administered to President Donald Trump when he fell ill with the virus.
“The moment we were notified of what happened, we acted immediately to correct it and immediately revised and strengthened our protocols to improve our distribution process to prevent this from happening again,” Maj. General James Hoyer, Deputy General of the West Virginia National Guard, said in a press release.
As there are currently no data on the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines in people who received monoclonal antibodies as part of treatment with COVID-19, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend that “vaccination should be delayed by at least at least 90 days, as a precautionary measure until additional information is available, to avoid interfering with antibody treatment in vaccine-induced immune responses. “
However, despite the CDC’s recommendation, the West Virginia National Guard told ABC News that “there are no worries that this will delay individuals by 90 days” and that “all 42 individuals are getting the vaccine today”.
Miller said the Boone Department of Health will continue to work closely with the state National Guard and the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources to review all internal policies and procedures.
“Although this injection is not harmful, it has been replaced by the vaccine. But this occurrence offers our leadership team an important opportunity to review and improve the safety and vaccination process for each West Virginia,” Dr. Clay Marsh, COVID of state 19 czar said.
Sony Salzman and Sasha Pezenik of ABC News contributed to this report.