By Todd Richmond | Associated press
MADISON, Russia. – Authorities arrested a Milwaukee suburban pharmacist on Thursday on suspicion of deliberately ruining hundreds of doses of coronavirus vaccine by taking it out of the refrigerator for two nights.
Grafton Police Department said former lawyer Aurora Health’s pharmacist was arrested on suspicion of reckless danger, adulteration of prescription drugs and criminal damage to property. The department said in a press release that it was in jail. Police have not identified the pharmacist, saying he has not yet been formally charged.
His motive is still unclear. Police said detectives believe they knew the damaged doses would be useless and that people who received them would mistakenly think they had been vaccinated when not.
Aurora Health Care adviser attorney Jeff Bahr told reporters during a teleconference Thursday afternoon that the pharmacist deliberately removed 57 vials containing hundreds of doses of the Modern Refrigeration Vaccine at a medical center. Grafton during the night of December 24-25. he returned them and left them again on the night of December 25 to Saturday. The vials contained enough doses to inoculate 570 people.
A pharmacy technician discovered the vials outside the refrigerator on Saturday morning. Bahr said the pharmacist initially said he had removed the vaccine to access other items in the fridge and that he had inadvertently not replaced it.
The Modern vaccine is still viable for 12 hours outside of refrigeration, so workers used the vaccine to inoculate 57 people before discarding the rest. Police said the rejected doses were worth between $ 8,000 and $ 11,000.
Bahr said health care officials suspected the pharmacist more as they reviewed the incident. After multiple interviews, the pharmacist admitted on Wednesday that he deliberately removed the vaccine and left it out during the night of Dec. 24-25, returned it to the refrigerator at some point, and withdrew it overnight. December 25-26.
Bahr said this means the doses people received on Saturday are virtually useless. Modern has told Aurora that there are no security issues, but the system monitors them closely, he said.
Bahr declined to comment on the pharmacist’s motive.