Authorities arrested a suburban pharmacist from Milwaukee on Thursday, suspected of deliberately spoiling hundreds of doses of the coronavirus vaccine, removing it from the refrigerator for two nights.
The Grafton Police Department said the former Advocate Aurora Health pharmacist was arrested on suspicion of danger, tampering with a prescription drug and criminal property damage.
The department said in a press release that he was in prison. Police have not identified the pharmacist, claiming he has not yet been formally charged.
Lawyer Aurora Health Care, Director of the Medical Group Jeff Bahr, told reporters during a conference call on Thursday afternoon that the pharmacist deliberately removed 57 vials of the Modern vaccine from refrigeration overnight from December 24 to December 25, returned them and then left them out again on the night of December 25 on Saturday.
A pharmacy technician discovered the bottles out of the refrigerator on Saturday morning. The workers used the vaccine to inoculate 57 people. Bahr said his doses were ineffective. Recipients should not be in danger, he said, but the system is monitoring their condition.
“This was a situation involving a bad actor, as opposed to a bad process,” he said.
The Grafton facility did not receive a Modern vaccine before December 24, which means that the pharmacist would not have the opportunity to tamper with any other vials, he added.
“We continue to believe that vaccination is our way out of the pandemic. We are more than disappointed that this individual’s actions will result in more than 500 people being delayed in receiving the vaccine, ”the health system said in a statement.
The number of COVID-19 cases in Wisconsin has increased in the past few days, after falling in early December. The state Department of Health Services reported 3,810 new confirmed cases on Thursday, marking the third consecutive day of increase in daily infections. The state has seen 481,102 cases.
COVID-19 was a factor in another 41 deaths, bringing the total number of deaths in the state to 4,859. The survival rate remained unchanged at 99%.