Just when you thought things were going very well with President Joe Biden’s “new” plan to launch the vaccine, we came across another story of someone stepping on a rake and messing with work. At Jamaica Plain VA Medical Center in Boston, workers found an unpleasant surprise waiting for them when they arrived Tuesday morning. Over 1,900 doses of the Modern vaccine “spoiled” overnight and had to be discarded. Unlike some previous cases we covered, where workers intentionally destroyed vaccine bottles, this ended up being more of a technical problem. One of the freezers where the vaccine was stored “failed” without anyone noticing and the vials were found to be unsuitable for use. But is the way the freezer failed this is raising questions.
Nearly 2,000 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine were spoiled at a Veterans Affairs hospital in Boston after a contractor accidentally turned off a freezer, hospital officials said on Thursday.
The Jamaica Plain VA Medical Center team found on Tuesday that a freezer had broken, compromising 1,900 doses of the Modern COVID-19 vaccine.
The freezer plug was loose after a contractor accidentally disconnected it during cleaning, according to a statement from Kyle Toto, a spokesman for the VA Boston Healthcare System. The freezer was in a safe place and had an alarm system, he said.
Basically, we are seeing a case where a janitor who did the cleaning on the night shift accidentally turned off the freezer where the vaccines were stored or turned it off during cleaning and forgot to turn it on again. Either way, it probably isn’t going to be treated as a criminal issue, but the result is the same. Two thousand people, probably veterans, will not receive vaccines as soon as expected.
What they need to find out is whether the alarm system really works or not. Apparently, the freezer was still working (or would have worked if it was connected), but when the high temperature alarm should have gone off after being disconnected for a while, no one was notified. That was the real technical flaw here.
The reason this is important is that it highlights one of the main problems of the Modern vaccine. The Pfizer vaccine should be kept in extra-cold and below freezing temperatures. But the Modern version not only spoils if it gets too hot, but also if it gets too cold. Last weekend, another large shipment of 12,000 doses of Moderna sent to Michigan was damaged because it was frozen at sub-zero temperatures. This may have been the result of confusion on the part of the delivery company, believing that they were sending doses of Pfizer or just another mechanical failure.
What we are learning here is that the Modern vaccine can be incredibly effective with a success rate of over 90%, but it is also extremely fragile. It must be stored somewhere in the correct temperature range or it will spoil quickly. Of course, there should be a lot more training not only for the people responsible for storing and managing it, but also for the people hired to transport it. This is another reason to await final approval and the widespread launch of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. This can be stored in standard refrigerator temperatures of 35.6 to 46.4 degrees Fahrenheit and for long periods of time.