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A pharmacist at a Wisconsin hospital was arrested Thursday on suspicion of sabotaging more than 500 doses of the coronavirus vaccine by deliberately removing them from the refrigerator to spoil them, law enforcement and medical officials said. The time when 57 vaccine vials were found left out of the cold room earlier this week has since been fired but has not been publicly identified, officials said. Each vial contains 10 doses. Almost 60 of the doses in question were given before hospital officials determined that the drug had not been refrigerated long enough to render the vaccine ineffective. The remaining 500 doses were then discarded. Moderna Inc, manufacturer of the vaccine, assured the hospital that receiving an injection of one of the doses removed from the refrigeration posed no safety concerns other than leaving the recipient unaffected. protection against COVID infection, said Dr Jeff Bahr, president of the Aurora Health Care medical group. Neither Aurora Health nor law enforcement offered a possible motive for the sabotage. Those who received the ineffective doses have been advised and will need to be revaccinated. The episode means that vaccination will be delayed for 570 people who should have received their first injection of the two-dose vaccine. Speaking at an online press briefing Thursday, Mr Grafton Police said in a statement that the pharmacist “knew that the spoiled vaccinations would be unnecessary and that people who had received the vaccinations would think they had vaccinated against the virus in The incident comes amid public opinion surveys showing widespread skepticism about the safety of COVID-19 vaccines, which have barely received emergency use clearance from federal regulators 11 months after the virus first appeared in the United States. taking the vaccine has even been expressed by some health workers who are among those designated as the first to receive them. after the lost vials were discovered on Dec. 26, the pharmacist said it was an inadvertent mistake, but upon further examination of the matter, he was admitted on Wednesday for intentionally removing the vaccine from refrigeration, hospital officials said. in suburb of Milwaukee, was arrested Thursday and jailed in the Ozaukee County Jail for the felony of recklessly endangering security, tampering with a prescription drug and criminal damage to property, said the police.
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