Fifty vials of the Modern coronavirus vaccine had to be discarded in Wisconsin last weekend due to “human error”.
TMJ4 Milwaukee, a local NBC affiliated station, reported that the incident occurred at the Advocate Aurora Health clinic in Grafton, Wisconsin, when an employee took the bottles out of a freezer to remove another item. The employee then mistakenly failed to return the bottles to the freezer.
“We learned that about 50 vials of Moderna vaccine were inadvertently removed from a pharmacy refrigerator overnight,” an Advocate Aurora spokesman told TMJ4. “Although part of the vaccine was administered to team members on December 26 within the approved 12-hour post-refrigeration window, unfortunately, most of it had to be discarded due to the storage temperature requirements necessary to maintain its viability. “
The spokesman added: “We are clearly disappointed and we are sorry that this has happened.”
Although it does not need to be stored in extreme temperatures below zero that the Pfizer vaccine requires, the Moderna vaccine should be stored at temperatures between minus 13 degrees and 5 degrees Fahrenheit or at temperatures between 36 F and 46 F for up to 30 days before be thrown away.
In its newsletter on the Modern vaccine, the Food and Drug Administration notes that the specific requirements of the vaccine are due to the fact that the drug does not contain preservatives and the particles inside it are very fragile. Once the vaccine has been thawed, it cannot be refrozen.
Like the Pfizer vaccine, Moderna’s immunization is given in two doses about a month apart. Each vial contains multiple doses.
According to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, 100,000 doses of the Modern vaccine and 84,825 doses of the Pfizer vaccine have been allocated to the state. The department’s most recent data indicates that 10,358 vaccines have been administered so far.