Authorities arrested a pharmacist in suburban Milwaukee on Thursday on suspicion of deliberately ruining hundreds of doses of the COVID-19 vaccine by taking them out of refrigeration for two nights.
The Grafton Police Department said the former Advocate Aurora Health pharmacist was arrested on suspicion of putting other people at risk, adulterating a prescription drug and criminal damage to property.
The department said in a press release that the detainee was in jail. Police have not identified the pharmacist as he has not yet been formally charged.
Advocate Aurora Health medical director Jeff Bahr told reporters during a teleconference on Thursday afternoon that the pharmacist deliberately removed from refrigeration 57 vials of Moderna’s vaccine overnight from 24 to 25 December, he returned them, and then left them out again the next night.
A pharmaceutical technician discovered the jars out of the fridge on Saturday, Dec. 26 in the morning. Workers used the vaccine to inoculate 57 people. Bahr said his doses were ineffective.