“It became clear that this was a situation with a bad actor instead of a bad process,” said dr. Jeff Bahr, president of Aurora Healthcare Medical Group, said.
It is unclear whether there will be changes in healthcare systems such as Advocate Aurora, but officials say the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines have been thoroughly documented.
Public Health Officials told WISN any incident with wasted doses should be reported and investigated.
Yet there is a growing call for transparency about the deployment of vaccines themselves.
“I think there is an opportunity for improved transparency. We are looking at 50 states rolling it out at the same time,” said U.S. Representative Bryan Steil of Wisconsin.
Steamm and Senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin sent a letter to Tony Evers’ governments before the Grafton incident, asking for more details about the state’s plan.
In Grafton, the FBI is also involved.
RELATED: Nearly 500 Doses of Modern COVID Vaccine Disposed of in Grafton, Wisconsin
State health officials said they are constantly working to improve the system, which is described as the largest public health enterprise in generations.
Neither state health officials nor the governor have answered questions since the incident in public, as formal charges are now pending.
Authorities on Thursday arrested a suburban pharmacist in Milwaukee on suspicion of deliberately destroying hundreds of doses of coronavirus vaccine by removing it from the refrigerator for two nights.
The Grafton police station said the former attorney Aurora Health Pharmacist was arrested on suspicion of reckless threat, which is the prescription of a prescription drug and criminal case damage. Police have not identified the pharmacist and said he has not yet been formally charged.
Police said detectives believed he knew the spoiled doses would be useless and that people receiving them would mistakenly think they were vaccinated if they did not.
RELATED: ‘We Need More Vaccine’: Progress in Coronavirus Vaccination Shall Fall as Health Officers Wait for More Deliveries
Bahr told reporters during a teleconference Thursday afternoon that the pharmacist deliberately took 57 vials containing hundreds of doses of the Moderna vaccine out of the refrigerator at a Grafton medical center overnight on Dec. 24 to Dec. 25. has, the night of December 25 to Saturday. The vials contain enough doses to vaccinate 570 people.
A pharmacist technician discovered the bottles outside the refrigerator Saturday morning. Bahr said the pharmacist initially said he had removed the vaccine to gain access to other items in the refrigerator, and that he had not accidentally replaced it.
The Moderna vaccine is still viable outside refrigeration for 12 hours, so workers used the vaccine to vaccinate 57 people before throwing away the rest. Police said the discards were worth between $ 8,000 and $ 11,000.
Bahr said health care officials became more suspicious of the pharmacist as they reviewed the incident. After multiple interviews, the pharmacist admitted Wednesday that he deliberately removed the vaccine and left it out overnight Dec. 24 to Dec. 25, bringing it back in the refrigerator at some point and then removing it again overnight Dec. 25 to Dec. 26.
Bahr said that means the doses people receive on Saturday are almost useless. Moderna told Aurora that there are no security issues, but the system is keeping a close eye on it, he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2021 WPVI-TV. All rights reserved.