An employee at a hospital outside Milwaukee intentionally spoiled more than 500 doses of coronavirus vaccine by removing 57 vials from a pharmacy cabinet, hospital officials announced Wednesday as local police said they were investigating the incident with federal authorities .
The hospital officials began an internal investigation on Monday, saying they initially ‘believed’ the incident was caused by ‘unintentional human error’. The vials were removed Friday and most were discarded on Saturday, with only a few still safe to be administered at Aurora Medical Center in Grafton, Wisington, according to an earlier statement from the health system. Each vial has enough for 10 vaccinations, but can only sit for 12 hours at room temperature.
Two days later, the employee admitted that he “deliberately took the vaccine out of the refrigerator,” the system, Aurora Health Care, said in a statement late Wednesday.
The employee, who was not identified, was fired, Aurora Health said. The statement did not address the motive of the worker, but said that the appropriate authorities were notified immediately.
On Wednesday night, police in Grafton, a town of about 12,000, 20 miles north of Milwaukee, said they were investigating with the FBI and the Food and Drug Administration. In a statement, the local police department said the security services at Aurora Health Care’s corporate office in Milwaukee heard about the incident. The system serves Eastern Wisconsin and Northern Illinois, and contains 15 hospitals and more than 150 clinics, according to the website.
Leonard Peace, an FBI spokesman in Milwaukee, declined to comment on the Bureau’s involvement, but said, “We are aware of that.” The FDA was also aware of this, said a spokeswoman, Stephanie Caccomo, who also did not want to address the existence of an investigation. She addressed questions to the hospital.
Jeff Bahr, president of Aurora Health Care Medical Group, would give an update on the incident on Thursday afternoon.
The tampering will delay the vaccination for hundreds of people, Aurora Health officials said in a state where 3,170 new cases were reported and 40 people died Wednesday of covid-19, the coronavirus disease, according to the coronavirus detection by The Washington Post.
“We are more than disappointed that the actions of this individual lead to a delay of more than 500 people receiving the vaccine,” the health system said in a statement.
Tara C. Smith, an epidemiologist at Kent State University and an authority on vaccine antipathy, said the incident would encourage medical providers to assess who has access to the shots, even among their own employees.
“Hopefully it’s one-off, but I’m sure places will now have to consider whether those who handle the vaccines are trusted, above and beyond to make sure the stock is under camera surveillance,” she said.
Security is important in state planning, officials say. When Wisconsin began receiving vaccines earlier this month, the Department of Health did not disclose the eight local hubs that received the bulk of the material.
Julie Willems Van Dijk, deputy secretary of the Department of Health Services in Wisconsin, said at a news conference on December 14: ‘It is a precious vaccine. We do not want to create any security risks. She said the state had consulted the Department of Homeland Security about the plans.
Health Secretary Andrea Palm said Thursday her department worked with Aurora Health officials while “investigating the situation, reviewing their processes and implementing improvements.”
“It is disappointing that any covid-19 vaccine has been wasted in Wisconsin,” she added in a statement to The Washington Post.
The incident in Wisconsin comes as states continue to grapple with a bumpy implementation of the first doses of the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines, which were approved less than a month ago and are predisposed to health care workers and residents and long-term staff. facilities. So far, distribution has lagged far behind with federal forecasts, raising doubts as to whether the outgoing government will reach its already revised target of 20 million vaccines distributed by the end of the year.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday that 12.4 million doses of the vaccine have been distributed across the United States, but only 2.6 million of them have been administered. (This means that only 1 in 125 Americans received the first dose of vaccine.) Trump administration officials said these numbers lag behind the actual rate of vaccination, which also promises to accelerate from next week.
The Moderna and Pfizer BioNTech vaccines, the first two regiments to obtain regulatory approval for emergency use, are two-shot protocol with complex logistical requirements. Moderna’s vaccine does not require subarctic temperatures, just like the Pfizer product, but it must be kept cold. According to the company, it can be stored at freezer temperature for six months and kept for 30 days in normal refrigeration conditions. However, it can only be kept at room temperature for 12 hours and cannot be frozen again once thawed.
Complex storage requirements are one of the reasons why government officials request suppliers to administer the vaccine quickly once it has been received. Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers called on Twitter last week to celebrate the start of delivery of the Moderna vaccine, saying it was “another step forward in fighting this pandemic.”
In its original statement Monday, Aurora Health said it had successfully vaccinated approximately 17,000 people over the past twelve days. According to the initial investigation, the 57 vials were left by the employee overnight after they were “temporarily removed to gain access to other objects.”
The health system apologized and said: “We are clearly disappointed and regret that this happened.”