A Kroger in Virginia accidentally injected clients looking for a COVID-19 vaccine with an empty syringe.
What are the details?
According to a CNN report Thursday, at least nine people were recently shot for nothing when they went to receive the COVID-19 vaccine at a Kroger in the Richmond area.
A company spokesman said in a statement that recently a “small number of patients” received empty shots at a Little Clinic location in Midlothian, Virginia.
Kroger only noticed that nine patients received empty syringes when the Virginia Department of Public Health informed them, because the provider “did not realize that the syringes were not pre-filled.”
“All affected customers have been contacted and have received the COVID-19 vaccine,” the spokesman added. “We thank these customers for their understanding and apologized for their inconvenience.”
The spokesman added: “Kroger is taking steps to ensure that similar incidents do not occur in the future.”
What else?
Carrie Hawes, a client at the clinic who received one of the empty shots, told WWBT-TV that she was alarmed when she heard the news that nothing was being injected into her.
“He immediately spoke to a manager and told him that a mistake had been made: that we had only been given saline. There was no vaccination material,” Hawes said. “My initial reaction was shock and surprise, and a bit of anxiety.”
Hill reported Thursday that after clarifying and confirming, the syringes were empty and not filled with any saline solution.
WWBT noted that Hawes was able to return to the clinic to receive the corrected COVID-19 vaccine within two hours of receiving the news.
“They were very clear with me when we walked in,” he said. “They showed us the vial to make sure it was Johnson & Johnson, they took out the vaccine, he showed it to me again.”
“Yes, it is unfortunate that an error occurred, but it was a small number of people. The situation was resolved,” he added. “I’m clear it’s been a long year and sometimes there’s not a lot of confidence in our systems and process, but I think everyone has the best intentions and the end result is to vaccinate as many people as we can, as soon as we can to be able to protect our community “.