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(Reuters) – A pharmacist at a Wisconsin hospital was arrested Thursday for sabotaging more than 500 doses of the coronavirus vaccine by deliberately removing them from the refrigeration to spoil them, law enforcement and medical officials said.
The pharmacist, an employee of Aurora Medical Center in Grafton, Wis., When 57 vials of vaccine 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 taken out of the refrigeration posed no safety concerns other than leaving the recipient unprotected against COVID infection, the Dr Jeff Bahr, Aurora Health Care Medical Group Chairman.
Neither Aurora Health nor law enforcement offered a possible motive for the sabotage.
Those who received the ineffective doses have been notified and should be revaccinated. This 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 news briefing Thursday, Bahr said there was no evidence the pharmacist tampered with the vaccines in any way, other than removing them from the refrigeration, or that other doses were disturbed.
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