The Wisconsin Medical Center, where 57 vials of the Moderna coronavirus vaccine were discarded earlier this week, said in a statement Wednesday that the employee who took the vaccines out of the freezer did so “on purpose” and was no longer employed by the hospital.
On Monday, hospital officials said that about 50 vials of the vaccine should be thrown away after an employee at the Advocate Aurora Health medical center in Grafton, Wis., “ Accidentally ” removed them from the pharmacy’s refrigerator, where the vaccines are to be kept. housed at low temperatures.
At the time, the incident was blamed on “human error,” but in a statement Wednesday, the medical center said the vials had been deliberately removed. According to the statement, the 57 vials discarded overnight had resulted in the discarding of 500 doses of the vaccine.
“We immediately launched an internal review and got the impression it was caused by unintentional human error. The person in question acknowledged today that they deliberately removed the vaccine from the refrigerator, ”the hospital said in the statement Wednesday.
“We are more than disappointed that this person’s actions will result in a delay of more than 500 people getting their vaccine. This was a violation of our core values, and the individual is no longer employed by us, ”the hospital added.
The hospital stated that the “competent authorities” had been notified to investigate the incident.
Despite the loss of hundreds of vaccines, a spokesman told The Hill on Monday that the hospital’s rollout plan had not been interrupted, as vaccines had been diverted from other locations of medical centers.
According to the most recent data from the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, 47,147 vaccines have been administered in the state so far.
“We continue to believe that vaccination is our way out of the pandemic,” said the hospital.
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Wisconsin has confirmed more than 5,000 deaths and more than 15,000 cases since the start of the pandemic.