The COVID-19 vaccine goes to waste

(NBC NEWS) – A Columbus vaccine supplier has been suspended by the Ohio Department of Health, accused of failing to monitor the temperature at which doses of the COVID-19 vaccine were maintained.

According to the Ohio Department of Health, SpecialtyRX, a vaccine supplier in Columbus, received 1,500 vaccines to vaccinate residents at eight long-term care facilities before the new year.

After administering the first doses, ODH said that SpecialtyRX had 890 doses left. The company was exploring transferring doses to another provider when it was discovered that they did not adequately monitor temperatures in their refrigerator and freezer, according to ODH.

The health department requires all suppliers of the COVID-19 vaccine to check and record the minimum and maximum temperatures of refrigerators and freezers each working day.

The lack of temperature monitoring means that doses are not usable.

“If you stray from these storage conditions, you will essentially have to waste the product,” said Dr. Zach Jenkins, an infectious disease specialist and associate professor of pharmacy at Cedarville University. “You really have to throw it in the trash, so to speak, and one of the reasons for that is that we just don’t have the data to tell us how stable and secure this product is beyond that window of time. “

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