Some COVID-19 vaccines that were administered at the Jones Beach State Park vaccination site on Long Island on a day last week were found to be ineffective due to improper storage.
The New York State Department of Health announced that the vaccine administered in Jones Beach on Monday, February 15, is ineffective after exceeding the permitted temperature to maintain its viability.
Anyone who received the vaccine improperly stored was notified and a new injection was rescheduled. The authorities noted that there is no health risk when receiving an ineffective vaccine.
Authorities said the vaccine was being transported in isolated refrigerators to cars waiting on a particularly cold day, when a worker noticed that the temperature in a refrigerator was dropping to a lower limit.
The worker then tried to increase the temperature, which caused him to exceed the upper limit unexpectedly and without knowing it.
Approximately 10 percent of people vaccinated on February 15 received ineffective doses.
“The health and safety of New Yorkers is our highest priority and, due to the very specific temperature sensitivity of this vaccine, we have a process in place to identify if any temperature variations occur,” said Jill Montag, a spokesman for the Department. State Health Department in a statement. “This process worked, allowing us to quickly locate this problem, identify the extremely small number of people impacted and start taking action immediately.
“The Department of Health determined that there was no health risk for New Yorkers and we contacted everyone involved to reschedule their appointments as soon as possible.”
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