Nearly 2,000 doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine were spoiled at a VA facility in the Boston area after a cleaning contractor accidentally released the plug from a freezer, according to a report.
The shots were discovered by the VA Boston Pharmacy team on Tuesday. At least 1,900 doses have been compromised, Kyle Toto, a spokesman for the VA Boston Healthcare System, told the Boston Globe.
“The plug was found loose after a contractor accidentally removed it during cleaning,” said Toto.
He added that he did not think the spoiled doses would affect the launch of the vaccine and told the newspaper that replacement doses were already being delivered.
Moderna COVID-19 vaccines – as well as doses developed by rival Pfizer-BioNTech – must be stored at very low temperatures, between minus 13 and 5 degrees Fahrenheit. To maintain that temperature, the storage facilities at the Jamaica Plain VA Medical Center were equipped with alarms designed to trigger if doses become too hot or too cold, although they would not sound when the freezer was turned off.
Toto said he didn’t know why the alarm didn’t go off.
“An investigation is underway to determine the cause of the incident and why the monitoring and alarm system did not work as expected,” he said.
Massachusetts has recorded a total of 462,910 cases of coronavirus and 13,622 COVID-19 deaths since the pandemic began last year, according to the state’s Department of Public Health.