BOSTON (WHDH) – Nearly 2,000 doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine were spoiled at a freezer in Jamaica Plain VA Medical Center earlier this week, officials announced Friday.
According to a VA pharmacy staff, the freezer failed on Tuesday, which according to the VA Boston Healthcare System spokesman found in 1900 a vaccination of doses. They all had to be thrown away.
“The freezer was in a safe place and had an alarm system installed,” the spokesman said in a statement. “The plug was found loose after a contractor accidentally removed it during cleaning.”
Massachusetts Congressman Stephen Lynch confirmed that a pipe burst in a freezer that stood at -20 degrees, causing the vaccines to spoil.
“At the moment, we believe it was a perfect storm,” Lynch told reporters during a news conference.
The alarm system never sounded when the contractor accidentally released the plug.
Veteran Robert French says it is unfortunate that the doses have gone to waste, but that accidents are taking place.
‘Nineteen hundred people could use it, but an accident is an accident. We are only human, ”he said. “Hopefully they get something else and start distributing it, set in motion to save lives.”
Lynch added that the incident was ‘merely an accident’.
Vaccines that have been rescued have meanwhile been moved to Brockton.
Supplementary doses are being processed and the spokesperson says they do not anticipate the disruption of their vaccination effort.
Lynch noted that the state takes “all reasonable precautions” to ensure that a similar incident does not happen again.
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