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A pharmacist now fired from a suburban Milwaukee hospital was arrested Thursday and accused of intentionally removing 57 vials of COVID-19 vaccine from a pharmacy refrigerator, resulting in the hospital throwing out more than 550 doses.
Police in Grafton, Wisconsin, issued a statement on Thursday, saying that the Advocate Aurora Health Hospital employee is accused of tampering and causing the vials to be destroyed. The individual was fired from the medical center this week.
According to the police, the former pharmacist admitted in writing that he intentionally withdrew the vaccine.
“Grafton detectives indicate that the individual knew that the spoiled vaccines would be useless and that the people who received the vaccines would think they were vaccinated against the virus, when in fact they were not,” said the police.
The authorities said they first believed that the doses were accidentally left out of the fridge, but after receiving more information and taking a “deeper dive into the incident”, they found that the bottles were intentionally removed.
“The investigation revealed that a former pharmacist – a resident of Grafton, removed the vials from cold storage knowing that they would not be usable.”
Lawyer Aurora Health Care, Director of the Medical Group Jeff Bahr, said the destroyed vials were the Modern vaccine.
The Modern vaccine is shipped at a freezer temperature of -4 degrees Fahrenheit and the vials can be stored at refrigerator temperature for up to 30 days and at room temperature for half a day.
“We continue to believe that vaccination is our way out of the pandemic. We are more than disappointed,” the hospital said in a statement. “This was a violation of our fundamental values.”
The value of the wasted medicine is estimated to be between $ 8,000 and $ 11,000.
The former official, who has not been publicly identified, is currently being held in prison in Ozaukee County.