Just when you thought President Joe Biden’s “ new ” plan for vaccine rollout was going to be fine, we come across yet another story of someone stepping on a rake and crumbling the works. At Jamaica Plain VA Medical Center in Boston, workers found an unpleasant surprise awaiting them when they arrived Tuesday morning. More than 1,900 doses of the Moderna vaccine were “spoiled” overnight and had to be thrown away. Unlike some previous cases we have covered where workers intentionally destroyed vials of vaccine, this turned out to be a more technical problem. One of the freezers in which the vaccine was stored “failed” without anyone noticing and the vials were considered unsuitable for use. But it is the way the freezer broke that raises questions.
Nearly 2,000 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine were spoiled at a Boston Veterans Affairs hospital after a contractor accidentally disconnected a freezer, hospital officials announced Thursday.
Jamaica Plain VA Medical Center staff discovered on Tuesday that a freezer broke, compromising 1,900 doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.
The freezer’s plug was found to be loose after a contractor accidentally unplugged it while cleaning, according to a statement by Kyle Toto, a VA Boston Healthcare System spokesperson. The freezer had been in a secure location and had an alarm system, he said.
So basically we see a case where a janitor who was cleaning on the night shift either accidentally unplugged the power where the vaccines were kept, or pulled the plug while cleaning and forgot to put it back on. Close. Either way, it’s probably not going to be criminalized, but the result is the same. Two thousand people, most likely veterans, are not getting their vaccinations as soon as expected.
What they need to find out is whether their alarm system is working or not. Apparently the freezer was still functional (or would have been if it was plugged in), but when the high temperature alarm should have gone off after being unplugged for a while, no one was notified. That was the real technical glitch here.
The reason this is important is that it highlights one of the major issues with the Moderna vaccine. The Pfizer vaccine should be stored in extra cold temperatures below freezing. But the Moderna version is not only spoiled when it gets too hot, but also when it gets too cold. Last weekend, another large shipment of 12,000 Moderna doses sent to Michigan, all spoiled because they had been frozen to freezing temperatures. That could have been the result of confusion on the part of the delivery company believing that they were shipping Pfizer doses or simply some other mechanical failure.
What we’re learning here is that the Moderna vaccine may be incredibly effective with a success rate of over 90%, but it’s also extremely fragile. It needs to be kept somewhere in the correct temperature range or it will go bad pretty quickly. Clearly, much more training should have been provided, not only for the people responsible for storing and administering it, but also for the people hired to transport it. This is one more reason to look forward to the final approval and widespread introduction of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. It can be stored at standard refrigerator temperatures of 35.6 to 46.4 degrees Fahrenheit and for extended periods of time.