The gel packs used to maintain COVID-19 vaccine temperatures during transport are again in question amid potentially ruined jabs.
While states are clamoring for more supply, shipments of the Modern vaccine reached locations outside the range, affecting 4,400 doses in Maine and another 11,900 doses in Michigan earlier this week.
Both instances involve the same distributor – McKesson – and Moderna and federal officials are working on a thorough analysis of the implications for vaccine viability, according to Dr. Nirav Shah, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control (CDC).
BIDEN PLAN TO REOPEN SCHOOLS SUBJECT TO POTENTIAL CHANGES IN THE PANDEMIC OF CORONAVIRUS, THE OFFICER SAYS
December 30 tweet from the National Guard of the NC: “#NCNG received the first allocation of the Modern COVID-19 vaccine. Our doctors will begin to provide voluntary vaccines to guards who currently support our state’s # COVID19NC response efforts after completing the training of vaccines prescribed next week. ”
(National Guard NC)
“This phenomenon of some doses reaching outside the temperature range happened not only in Maine, but also in some other states, for example, in Michigan,” said Shah at a virtual press conference on Thursday.
Shipments come with a temperature monitoring device to track temperatures during transport. Shah said the boxes arrived in Maine with a “red X” instead of a “green checkmark”.
Moderna’s vaccine is stable at minus 20 degrees Celsius, but it cannot drop to storage temperatures below minus 40 degrees Celsius. Once refrigerated, it can last 30 days between 2 degrees Celsius and 8 degrees Celsius. The bottles cannot be refrozen after defrosting.
McKesson told the US CDC and Operation Warp Speed that “the gel packs were not left out to be defrosted at the proper temperature, but only thrown into the boxes,” according to Shah. “So the operational hypothesis now is that overcoming the temperature was at the lower limit, not the upper limit,” but until an investigation is completed, the authorities will not know for sure, he added.
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Replacement doses have already been sent to both states, but not without delay in consultations.
None of the vaccines in question have been administered, Shah said, but instead they are being kept in frozen storage until scientists give the vaccines the green light as safe and effective for use.
“Too cold increases the chances that the vaccines that were delivered to Maine, these 4,400 doses, could be used,” said Shah. “That’s because vaccines of this type are generally more stable in cold environments.”
Overall, Maine has administered more than 92,000 doses, and more than 17,000 people in the state have already received their second dose.