BOSTON (CBS): Nearly 2,000 doses of the Modern COVID-19 vaccine were compromised at VA Medical Center in Jamaica Plain after the freezer failed.
Earlier this week, a contractor accidentally disconnected the freezer while cleaning after a pipe exploded and flooded the room where the vaccines were stored. As a result, 1,900 doses of the vaccine were committed.
“For the Modern vaccine it is 12 hours. Once it has been at room temperature for longer, it can no longer be assured that it is effective and therefore the vaccine cannot be administered, “Dr. Paul Biddinger, medical director of emergency preparedness, told WBZ-TV. of the general mass Brigham.
Kyle Toto, a spokesman for the VA Boston Healthcare System, told WBZ that the vaccines have not been ruled out.
Toto said the freezer was in a safe place and he had an alarm system installed. An investigation is underway to determine why the surveillance and alarm system did not work.
“Replacement doses are in process and we do not anticipate the interruption of our vaccination effort,” Toto said.
Dr. Biddinger said proper storage is crucial to maintaining the integrity of the key element of the vaccine and that it is a global success against the virus.
“The problem is that the messenger RNA, the mRNA, is really fragile. People have kind of done the analogy of a M&M that melts very, very quickly.”
Massachusetts Representative Stephen Lynch said doses have been moved to Brockton and West Roxbury while the cleanup operation continues.
“We just think it was an accident,” Lynch told reporters Friday. “Part of the factor that contributed was the way these plugs work. One of them is a scroll, so it is very difficult to remove. But what was at the top of the freezer was a direct boost, so the engineering staff has corrected it. They have created a parenthesis, taken photographs of this plug and sent it to all the other VA hospitals that have this thermo-scientific freezer so that, in case it can happen elsewhere ”.