GREEN BAY, Wisconsin (WBAY) – Aurora Medical Center officials say an employee is no longer with the company after an investigation revealed that the employee acknowledged that he intentionally left out dozens of vials of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine overnight in Grafton, Wisconsin.
According to a statement sent late on Wednesday, Advocate Aurora Health officials said an internal review was launched immediately after learning of the incident earlier this week, and they were led to believe it was caused by human error. However, officials now say that the person in question acknowledged on Wednesday that the vaccine was intentionally removed from a pharmacy refrigerator.
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Company officials say they have notified the authorities for further investigation, saying they are “more than disappointed that the individual’s actions will result in more than 500 people being delayed in receiving the vaccine”.
Once the vaccine is thawed, it cannot be refrozen.
In addition, Aurora officials say they continue to believe that vaccination is the way out of the pandemic and that the action was a violation of their fundamental values.
A previous report stated that 50 bottles were left out when an employee removed them from a refrigerator to access other items and did not put them back on Friday night.
However, company officials increased that number to 57, saying it resulted in more than 500 doses of the vaccine being discarded.
The employee was not identified by Aurora employees.
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