Just when you thought things were going to go awry with President Joe Biden’s ‘new’ vaccine deployment plan, we came across a story again of someone stepping on a rake and inventing the works. At the Jamaica Plain VA Medical Center in Boston, workers were expecting an unpleasant surprise when they arrived Tuesday morning. More than 1,900 doses of the Moderna vaccine ‘spoiled’ overnight and had to be discarded. Unlike some cases we dealt with earlier, where employees maliciously destroyed the vial of vaccine, it appears to be a more technical problem. One of the freezers where the vaccine was stored “failed” without anyone noticing, and the vials are considered unsuitable. But this is the way the freezer failed it raises questions.
Nearly 2,000 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine were spoiled at a Veterans Affairs hospital in Boston after a contractor accidentally unplugged a freezer, hospital officials announced Thursday.
Jamaica Plain VA Medical Center staff discovered Tuesday that a freezer had failed, endangering 1,900 doses of the Modern COVID-19 vaccine.
According to a statement from Kyle Toto, a spokesperson for VA Boston Healthcare System, it was found that the plug of the freezer was loose after a contractor accidentally pulled it out during cleaning. The freezer was in a safe place and had an alarm system, he said.
So we actually see a case where a housekeeper cleaning the night shift, the freezer where the vaccines were stored, accidentally pulled out, or that he disconnected it during the cleaning problem and forgot to plug it in again. to be treated as criminal matters, but the result is the same. Two thousand people, probably veterans, will not get their vaccinations once expected.
What they need to find out is whether or not their alarm system is working. Apparently the freezer was still functional (or would have been if it had been plugged in), but when the alarm had to go off at high temperature after being pulled out for a while, no one was notified. That was the real technical failure here.
The reason why it is important is that it highlights one of the major problems with the Moderna vaccine. The Pfizer vaccine should be kept below zero at extra cold temperatures. But the Modern version is not only spoiled when it gets too hot, but also if it gets too cold. Last weekend, another large cargo of 12,000 doses of Moderna shipped to Michigan was spoiled because it froze to below zero temperature. This may be due to confusion at the delivery company because they believe they sent Pfizer doses or just another mechanical failure.
What we are learning here is that the Moderna vaccine can be incredibly effective with a success rate of over 90%, but it is also extremely fragile. It has to be stored somewhere in the right temperature range, otherwise it goes bad pretty quickly. Apparently there should have been a lot more training for not only the people who were responsible for its storage and application, but also the people who were hired to transport it. This is another reason to look forward to the final approval and wide release of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. One can be stored at standard refrigerator temperatures of 35.6 to 46.4 degrees Fahrenheit and for longer periods.