Several patients at a CVS pharmacy in Massachusetts received wrong dosages of the Modern coronavirus vaccine on Monday.
A CVS spokesman told DailyMail.com that the drugstore in Ipswich – 30 miles from Boston – gave some people a dose of 0.3 milliliter (mL) instead of the correct 0.5 mL dose recommended by the Centers for Disease Control. Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
This is 40% less than the dose you should have received.
It is unclear how many patients were affected by the error, but the spokesman described it as ‘a limited number’.
“We contacted all affected patients to apologize for this incident and answer any questions they may have,” said the spokesman.
“We report to the appropriate regulatory agencies and take the necessary steps to prevent this from happening again.”
A CVS in Ipswich, Massachusetts (photo), gave a ‘limited number of patients’ the wrong dose of the Modern coronavirus vaccine on Monday
Patients received a dose of 0.3 milliliter (mL), 40% less than the correct 0.5 mL dose recommended by the CDC. In the photo: three vials of the vaccine Moderna COVID-19 at a vaccination center in Berlin, Germany, February 17
Doctors and the CDC say that as long as a patient’s first injection is half a dose, or 0.25 mL, they will be fully protected when they receive a second dose. The US is currently vaccinating between 1.6 and 1.7 million people a day
Carol Kennedy Hurley, from Arlington, was one of the patients who received the wrong dosage at Ipswich CVS.
She told WCVB that she received a call from a local pharmacist and was told that she received 0.3 mL which is recommended for injection of Pfizer instead of Moderna.
“A number of people who came in on Monday did not receive the right dosage,” she said.
“The pharmacist who was working at CVS on Monday was, before that, distributing the Pfizer vaccine and he must have inadvertently been confused.”
Doctors say receiving at least half a dose – 0.25 mL – will still offer protection until the time of the second scheduled dose
“It will probably still be effective, but we don’t have a lot of data,” Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, told DailyMail.com in an email.
Hotez added that Dr. Moncef Slaoui, head of the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed program, “went so far as to say that giving half a dose may even be an acceptable strategy.”
Recently, a study using data from Moderna’s Phase II trial was published in the journal Vaccine, suggesting that the company’s coronavirus injection may still trigger a strong immune response, even through half doses.
The researchers looked at the levels of antibodies that bind to the spike protein – which the virus uses to infect cells – and the levels of neutralizing antibodies that kill the virus.
They found that the current two-dose regimen and half that amount were able to elicit “significant” immune responses.
However, health officials do not recommend that patients receive half doses of the vaccine at this time.
As of Thursday, 41 million Americans – 12.5% of the population – have received a dose and 16.1 million – 4.9% of the population – are fully immunized
At least 73 million shots have been delivered, with President Joe Biden currently on track to reach the goal of 100 million shots in his first 100 days in office
The CVS spokesman told DailyMail.com that, based on the CDC and clinical guidelines, it is not recommended that patients affected by the error receive a third dose.
Those who received the 0.3 mL dose can receive their second and last injection in the next month and will still have full protection.
Kennedy Hurley told the WCVB that she has an appointment for her final dose scheduled for four weeks.
“I think it is very important that the people who are vaccinating are really aware of the fact that if they do not do it correctly, people will assume they are doing well and are not,” she said.
The United States is currently vaccinating between 1.6 and 1.7 million Americans on average against COVID-19, an increase of less than one million in the previous month.
President Joe Biden is on track to reach his goal of 100 million doses in his first 100 days in office – but the pace must be accelerated to reach his plan to vaccinate almost all adults by the end of the summer.
As of Thursday, 41 million Americans – 12.5% of the population – have received a dose and 16.1 million – 4.9% of the population – are fully immunized
