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.
The department said in a news release that he was in jail. Police have not identified the pharmacist and said he has not yet been formally charged.
Aurora Health Care Chief Medical Officer Jeff Bahr told reporters during a teleconference on Thursday afternoon that the pharmacist took 57 vials of the Moderna vaccine out of the refrigerator overnight on December 24 to December 25, returned them and then again on the night of December 25 to Saturday.
A pharmacy technician discovered the bottles outside the refrigerator Saturday morning. Workers used the vaccine to vaccinate 57 people. Bahr said their doses were ineffective. The recipients may not be in danger, he said, but the system monitors their conditions.
“It was a situation where a bad actor was involved, as opposed to a bad process,” he said.
The Grafton facility had not yet received any Moderna vaccine before Dec. 24, meaning the pharmacist did not have the chance to tamper with any other vials, he added.
“We still believe that vaccination is our way out of the pandemic. We are more than disappointed that the actions of this individual will result in a delay of more than 500 people receiving their vaccine, ‘the health care system said in a statement.
The number of COVID-19 cases in Wisconsin has increased in recent days after plunging in early December. The state Department of Health Services on Thursday reported 3,810 newly diagnosed cases, which is the third consecutive day of increasing daily infections. The state has now seen 481,102 cases.
COVID-19 was a factor in another 41 deaths, bringing the total death toll from the state to 4,859. The survival rate remains unchanged at 99%.