Nearly 2,000 doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine were spoiled in a VA area in VA after a cleaning contractor accidentally loosened a plug for a freezer, according to a report.
The shots were discovered Tuesday by staff at the VA Boston Pharmacy. At least 1,900 doses have been compromised, Kyle Toto, a spokeswoman for the VA Boston Healthcare System, told the Boston Globe.
“The plug was found loose after a contractor accidentally removed it during cleaning,” Toto said.
He added that he did not think the spoiled doses would affect the explosion of the vaccine, and told the newspaper that replacement doses were already being delivered.
Modern COVID-19 vaccines – as well as doses developed by rival Pfizer-BioNTech – should be stored at very low temperatures, between negative 13 and negative 5 degrees Fahrenheit. To maintain this temperature, the storage facilities at the Jamaica Plain VA Medical Center were equipped with alarms intended to activate if the doses became too hot or too cold, although it did not sound when the freezer was connected.
Toto said he was not sure why the alarm did not go off.
“An investigation is underway to determine what caused the incident and why the monitoring and alarm system did not work as expected,” he said.
According to the state Department of Public Health, Massachusetts in Massachusetts recorded 462,910 cases of coronavirus and 13,622 deaths due to COVID-19.