77 inmates receive “6 times the recommended amount” of COVID-19 vaccine in Iowa

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Dozens of inmates at the Iowa State Penitentiary were given doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine far higher than recommended. Paolo Lo Debole / Getty Images

Officials at a maximum-security prison in Iowa gave 77 inmates doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine that were several times more potent than recommended, the Des Moines Register reported.

The incident, which took place Tuesday, took place at Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison.

One inmate’s mother told the Registry that her son was getting a dose “six times the recommended amount,” doctors said.

“The affected prisoners have been notified and are being closely monitored by medical personnel. At the moment, the only side effects that the prisoners experience are those commonly associated with the Pfizer vaccine,” said a spokesman for the Iowa Department of Corrections. to the newspaper.

It is not clear how the incident happened. Two nurses who delivered the vaccine doses have been placed on leave pending an investigation.

The Pfizer vaccine comes in a six-dose vial, a fact that has previously led to mix-ups. In Australia, two nursing home residents were given four times the recommended amount. And in Germany, eight nursing home workers each received five times the recommended dose, with multiple reporting flu-like symptoms.

Similar incidents took place in Israel.

“In these cases, the practitioners forget to dilute and inject the vaccine concentrate as is,” Amiram Ariel, head of the Israeli Immunological Society, told Australian broadcaster ABC.

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