A Wisconsin hospital employee was fired and arrested after removing dozens of vials of the coronavirus vaccine from a pharmacy refrigerator, intentionally destroying more than 500 doses, a hospital investigation found.
The incident happened over the weekend at Aurora Medical Center in Grafton, north of Milwaukee. Grafton police announced the arrest of the pharmacist on Thursday, but did not reveal the man’s name or identify the reason.
Police said in a statement that they had arrested the former employee on suspicion of recklessly putting security at risk, tampering with a prescription drug and criminal property damage. The damage he caused “was estimated to be between $ 8,000 and $ 11,000,” police said.
Initially, it appeared that the 57 vials of the Moderna vaccine – which should be kept between 36 and 46 degrees Fahrenheit – were accidentally left out overnight, hospital officials said. Each vial contains approximately 10 doses of the vaccine.
But on Wednesday, the Aurora Medical Center announced that the hospital official involved “acknowledged that he intentionally removed the vaccine from the refrigerator”.
“We continue to believe that vaccination is our way out of the pandemic. We are more than disappointed,” the hospital said in a statement, adding that the employee was fired. “This was a violation of our fundamental values.”
The Modern vaccine has a window of 12 hours after being thawed. Most doses of the vaccine that were left outside the pharmacy refrigerator had to be discarded, although hospital officials later believed they could rescue some. After the hospital administered more than 50 doses of the vaccines that had been defrosted, he found that the vaccines had been defrosted twice, making them ineffective, a hospital official said at a news conference on Thursday. The hospital said that all those who received an ineffective vaccination were notified and that these individuals are not at risk.
News of spoiled vaccine doses in Wisconsin comes as the United States struggles to meet its vaccination goals. So far, only 2.8 million people have been vaccinated, well below the 20 million that the Trump administration expected by the end of the year.
The vaccine is not yet widely available and health professionals and nursing home residents have priority for the first doses.
On Wednesday, Advocate Aurora Health, the healthcare system of which Aurora Medical Center is part, said it has vaccinated more than 21,000 health professionals so far.
The pharmacist is currently being held at Ozaukee County Jail.