A Milwaukee health center employee “intentionally” took 57 vials of the Moderna coronavirus vaccine from the refrigerator and then did not put them back, rendering them unusable.
According to Advocate Aurora Health, the employee has been fired as a result of their actions.
Over the weekend, 57 vials – or 500 doses – of the Moderna vaccine had to be discarded after the worker removed the vials from a clinical refrigerator in Grafton.
Originally, Aurora Health Care said they had been accidentally taken out of a pharmacy refrigerator overnight, “but it was determined on Wednesday evening that the employee was doing this” on purpose “and never returned the vaccine.
Several vials of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine were removed from a refrigerator at a Milwaukee hospital, spoiling hundreds of doses
Advocate Aurora Health in Wisconsin said an employee deliberately removed more than 50 vials of the vaccine to get to another item and left the vials away without putting them back
Aurora Health says they are still investigating the incident.
Earlier this week, we learned that 57 vials of Moderna vaccine were taken overnight from a pharmacy refrigerator at Aurora Medical Center – Grafton, discarding more than 500 doses of vaccine.
‘We immediately started an internal review and we gave the impression that this was caused by unintentional human errors. The person in question today acknowledged that they deliberately removed the vaccine from the refrigerator.
57 vials of the Moderna vaccine had to be discarded after the worker removed the vials from a clinical refrigerator at Aurora Medical Center in Grafton
The vaccines are in limited supply and are currently being administered first to primary care health professionals. Pictures, registered nurse Amanda Wright, left, gives a shot of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine to registered nurse Paul Smith of Augusta University in Augusta on Wednesday. morning
“We have notified the appropriate authorities for further investigation. We continue to believe that vaccination is our way out of the pandemic. We are more than disappointed that this person’s actions will result in a delay of over 500 people getting their vaccine. This was against our core values and the person is no longer employed by us. ‘
Both federally approved vaccines – one made by Moderna, the other by Pfizer – require strict cold storage conditions to maintain their effectiveness.
The vaccines have limited availability and are currently the first to be administered to primary care health professionals.
The US only administered about 10 percent – less than 2.6 million – of the 20 million doses of coronavirus vaccine it would give to Americans by the end of 2020, despite having distributed more than 12 million doses to states and territories.
CDC data reveals that as of 9:00 a.m. Wednesday, fewer than 2.6 million people had received their first doses of Moderna or Pfizer vaccines – both of which are difficult to ship and handle because they must be stored at freezing temperatures.
The bottleneck is caused by state and federal level officials who have failed to make plans to get those shots into the arms of Americans, according to a former FDA official who told DailyMail.com the failure is akin to letting falling off the baton on the last leg of the vaccine race.
The delays came when the US set another stark record for its deadliest day on record, with more than 3,900 deaths in one day – and a new mutant ‘super strain’ of the virus was detected in Southern California and Colorado.
While Americans await vaccination, the UK on Wednesday approved a vaccine by AstraZeneca that will almost certainly speed up vaccine distribution there, as it is cheaper, much easier to ship, handle and store than the Pfizer and Moderna alternatives .
Still, US regulators don’t plan to approve the more efficient shot until April – two months after AstraZeneca’s US lawsuit, we have enough data to prove to the FDA that it works.
In the US, the federal government has left distribution plans almost entirely to individual states, where health departments are already thin due to rising COVID-19 cases.
According to CDC data updated Wednesday evening, as of Wednesday morning, the US had dispensed 12.4 million doses of vaccine and distributed less than 2.6 million.
Tom, 69, and Judy Barrett, 67, from Marco Island, Florida, wait in line for the vaccine at the Lakes Park Regional Library in Fort Myers on Wednesday in the early morning hours. They had been queuing since 8.30pm on Tuesday and 6am on Wednesday, the queue stretched for blocks
The result is a hell-go-kart patchwork of last-minute plans that vary wildly from state to state, pushing drug addicts and inmates forward in some places, while in others, like Florida, older Americans camp out on the grass. chairs at night in an attempt to be vaccinated.
Others say vital workers and the elderly are being told to ‘call around’ to see if they can get a vaccine.
As anger grew that only about 230,000 Americans are vaccinated a day, President Trump tweeted on Wednesday that states had the doses and were needed to “ get moving! ”
Even Operation Warp Speed’s chief scientist, Dr. Moncef Slaoui, admitted. that the roll-out of vaccines in the US ‘should’ be better.
Trump took to Twitter on Wednesday to blame states for slow vaccine delivery