Due to human error, fifty vials of the coronavirus vaccine manufactured by Moderna had to be thrown out in the state of Wisconsin this past weekend.
According to NBC, an affiliate station of theirs, TMJ4 Milwaukee, reported that the said incident occurred at an Advocate Aurora Health medical center in the village of Grafton in Ozaukee County, Wisconsin when an employee took the vials out of a storage freezer while removing another item.
The employee then mistakenly failed to return the said vials back to the freezer.
Based on the statement of the spokesperson of Advocate Aurora, they have learned that around 50 vials of Moderna vaccine were inadvertently removed from a pharmacy refrigerator overnight.
The spokesperson also added while a number of vaccines were already administered to their team members on December 26 within the approved 12-hour timeframe for its post-refrigeration window, unfortunately, the majority of the vaccines had to be discarded because of the temperature storage requirements which is necessary for maintaining the vaccine's viability.
Advocate Aurora Health medical center's spokesperson also emphasized that they are clearly disappointed and regret that this happened.
According to The Hill, Advocate Aurora Health's spokesperson also shared that the vaccination program at Aurora Grafton continues uninterrupted because they were able to redirect vaccine supply from their other sites of Aurora, and they are expecting additional shipments in the near future.
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Based on the information given by the spokesperson, the hospital did not currently have any vials of the Pfizer vaccine, which is the only other coronavirus vaccine that has been approved for use in the United States.
Despite not being as sensitive as compared to the vaccine of Pfizer which requires storage with sub-zero temperatures, the vaccine of Moderna must only be stored at temperatures between minus 13 degrees and 5 degrees Fahrenheit or in temperatures between 36 F and 46 F for up to 30 days before it is required to be thrown out, Newsbreak reported.
In the fact sheet regarding information about the vaccine of Moderna, the FDA or the Food and Drug Administration notes that the specific requirements of the vaccine all boil down to the fact that the medicine does not contain any preservative and the particles inside it are highly fragile, which means that once the vaccine has been thawed, it cannot be back into frozen.
According to some experts, just like the vaccine of Pfizer, the immunization using the vaccine of Moderna needs to be administered in two doses which has an interval of a month apart, and each of the vials is containing multiple doses.
Based on the data gathered by the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, 100,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine and a total of 83,825 doses of Pfizer's vaccine had already been allocated for the state.
The latest numbers show coming from the department states that 10,358 vaccines have already been administered.
As of the moment, the vaccines from the two pharmaceutical companies have been delivered to the strategic locations in the US to avoid any delays in the distribution.
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